Elecrtronic Warfare Aircraft

[New York Jets]

I have seen one thread on using EW Aircraft and the replies seemed a little vague.

I have done a little research on the various typres of EW used by the Allies and was wondering if I could get a little more detail as to how to apply them.

ELINT: I saw someone reply to use these to "trawl" and create decoys. How exactly is that accommplished?

Piperjack: These are on the Fortress RCM aircraft. How do I use these aircraft effectively?

Mandrel: These are on the Halifaxes and Fortresses. What is the proper usage for this?

Airborne Grocer: On the Halifaxes. How do I effectively employ this?

Windows: The one I do already understand. I understand their principle and usage but, how big of an area do they 'blind"?

Two additional questions.

Are EW aircraft best used on missions using only one plane?

When using Windows, I notice the circles around the various radar sites get small. Doe this represent them being blind or, is it just that their effectiveness is reduced?

[WaveRuler]

I tried sending single Halifax RCM to patrol above enemy radar stations on my 'inbound' route, it seemed to work quite well. Unfortunately I haven't got enough RCM units to experiment with deeper raids so I'm looking forward to the new squadrons arriving.

As for 'trawling' with the ELINT aircraft, I've never been able to get this to work very well. I have seen on here something talking about ELINT missions speeding up the production of jamming systems, so maybe that's the main use. I do include Mosquito RCM units whenever I launch a Mosquito B raid though and these raids do attract attention away from the following heavies.

[New York Jets]

ORIGINAL: WaveRuler

As for 'trawling' with the ELINT aircraft, I've never been able to get this to work very well. I have seen on here something talking about ELINT missions speeding up the production of jamming systems, so maybe that's the main use. I do include Mosquito RCM units whenever I launch a Mosquito B raid though and these raids do attract attention away from the following heavies.

Thank you. I'll try this. I've just started using my Night Intruders after reading these forums (long time owner of game, first time player) and I'm experimenting with EW A/C before paying a human opponent.

[wernerpruckner]

different ECM sets jam different radar sets.....some jam groundbased radar, some jam NF radar.....but the Germans are always upgrading.....so some jamming devices get less effective during the game,
but you get enough different ECM planes

[Hard Sarge]

Radar is tricky, as we can't do what Radar really does, or jam it the way it is really jammed, but...

for the most part, Radar sees the RCM plane as if it is a Squadron , so it can be used to decoy, the enemy (some planes, really did this, they were set up to toss out chaff, that looked like aircraft, and one use, was to jam a area, with a simi Known raid flying towards the jammed area, then once in the jammed zone, turn towards the target heading, and stay with in the jamming, while others would fly into a decoy path, trying to look like the full blown raid, hoping to draw in the defenders to the wrong part of the sky, hoping there small numbers would make them HARDer to find)

best uses ? depends on the player, depends on the enemy

single planes can be used for spot jamming, a stream of elints can look like a raid, a stream of jammers, can knock out radar along the whole path of the mission, once you have enough (never enough) you can send out a stream to either side of the Main force raids, with singles going to key radar sights, with some long legged streamers, flying with and after the Main force

one thing is, it is a chance, to jam, it is not, it will jam, so, more planes in the area, trying to jam, got a better chance of getting the job done, so, while you can plot single plane missions, it may be better to at least fly in pairs, or triples, staggering the target points a little bit

window is a short range jammer, it jams, by flooding the radar with as many targets as there is chaff in the air, but, it was breakable, if you knew how to read the data coming in, and later German Radar, was not as prone to falling for it, so the other jammer types are improvements to the system

(on a side note, the US after the war, wanted to know what the Germans thought about the P-61, they told them they wern't worried about it, when asked why, they told them, the pilots didn't fly like Germans, so they always knew from the ground where they where at and when they were in the area)

[kaybayray]

<S> Chris

Check my post on Allied Strategy and Doctrine in the War Room. I have a lot of info to get you going on RCM / ECM AC. Also I would advise searching the web for relative info on the AC, their equipment and capabilites, the Radar and its capabilities and uses for the various types modeled in the game. Keep in mind it is a game and not everything is full on modeled but you can use your RCM AC in various way with different levels of success depending upon what you want to do and how you go about it.


Sarge and Harley know the most about the nuts and bolts of the game. Nicholous Bell is also my "go to guy" for the Luftwaffe as he really knows how they work. Many others here too.

Later,
KayBay [8D]