EW

[#Grumble]

Electronic Warfare deserves it's own thread while we wait for the documentation to reveal more of this topic. Sunburn shared some exciting details on the beta forum, re-posting key pieces here.

As for my experience, it does work great, playing the Bass Drum scenario, the Iranian coastal S-300 SAM (my very own [:)]) batteries were pretty much invincible, even HARMs were good for snacks only with ~90% pH againts them, but a well placed Growler with oECM on changed the picture and I soon managed to wipe it out with HARM and SLAM-ER hits.

Here is info from Sunburn:

- Is ECM is working?
- It is.
- What has been implemented?
- Rag can provide more details but suffice to say it is _very_ comprehensive (we go into details like PRF modes, horizontal & vertical beamwidths, sensitivity as a matter of antenna temperature etc. etc.).
- How does offensive ECM affect radar detections?
- It can reduce them sharply.
- Does it affect radar guided missile accuracy?
- Yes.
- Is there standoff ECM? E.g. does the Growler loitering 25nm from the SAM site protect a larger area?
- Yes
- Do planes and approaching missiles receive bonus against the SAM?
- Not "bonus" but the SAM guidance is vulnerable to disruption.
- Coming from any bearing or only from the Growler's bearing?
- Effectiveness is maximized when the asset to be masked/protected is on the same bearing as the jammer and falls sharply as the angular separation opens up. Distances also play a large factor.

You can actually see guidance disruption, look for SAMs tracking maneuvering aircraft, be it either the oECM active EW plane or an escorted one and you can see time and again the missile stop tracking and just fly on in a straight line, often not able to engage the target at all.

[RoryAndersonCDT]

I have a video and page about Offensive electronic warfare at http://baloogancampaign.com/command-doc ... nsive-ecm/ [:D]

[#Grumble]

Thanks. Do you have details about the EW model of the game?
The video is instructive for guidance disruption but there are many types of jamming and what got me excited was Sunburn's hint at a comprehensive implementation.

The various ECM gears have (naturally) different characteristics, I wonder where/if this can be found in the DB. For example the Growlers's AN/ALQ-99 pod I'm looking at now does not give away much to work with.

Still, it's a great that we have EW, hope we can learn more of it!

[jpkoester1]

Much info including Raw-Data in this thread: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3426310&mpage=1&key=

Gets interesting on page 2

Best regards,
JP

[henri51]

Although I have just started with this game, I find that Google has a lot of easy-to-find information on most weapons. Although it will not give all the numbers that are in the database anyway, it WILL give information like that shrike anti-radar missiles are easily evaded by shutting down the radar.For example,Google "AIM 54" and you will find a full page crammed with information that is easier to digest than the numbers in the database. I am not putting down the database, but Google is a nice complement to it.

[#Grumble]

Thanks JP!
That thread is about ESM detection, I had mainly ECM and ECCM on my mind.
Still, the point raised in the thread, e.g. ESM detection ranges not exceeding the active ranges is very critical. The EMCON state decision is one of the most important a commander must make and it largely hinges on the effectiveness of the passive detections.
But I think this issue was corrected in the meantime, ESM detection ranges well exceed the ranges of the sources now.

In the meantime I learned a bit about the "guidance disruption" I mentioned in the first post.
Those cases, when the missile seems to stop tracking and flies straight on, are not really guidance disruptions as such. What happens there is that the enemy side's radar detection is degraded by the jamming and their contact info on my asset gets ambiguity, e.g. their exact contact turns into an expanding ambiguity circle. The center of that circle is not moving and the missile is tracking this center until their sensors are able to get the next update through the jamming.
You can see this if you play in editor mode and switch side to the SAM's side when the missile seems to suffer disruption.

There are questions about game's ECM model like
- how effective/powerful the different ECM pods and gears are?
- Can I find this info in the DB?
- Are there radars which are harder to jam?
- Is it easier to jam a short range radar than a longer one? Old/new? Are there sensor/EW generations?
- How does distance to radar, to escort, to EW effect the detection/jamming?
- How does geometry effect the ECM? How close an EW escort has to be to be effective?
Ok, we know the closer the better but is it feets or 1 nm or more? Does this depend on the power of the ECM?
- Is the number of ECM pods carried by an EW plane significant?
- Is the short range Growler loadout (4x AN/ALQ-99) more useful than the LR (2x AN/ALQ-99)?
- Is the number of ECM escorts I add to my strike packages significant? E.g. 1 EW escort is ok for a flight of 4 but for 8 or more I should use 2 escorts.