Originally Posted by
Prangster
I've long been aware that Bomber Commands 101 Squadron suffered the biggest losses of all Bomber Command units. However, until recently picking up Raymond Alexanders limited edition booklet 'Special Operations' I wasn't aware that their ABC Lancs attracted night fighters like bees to honey. Active from Jan 1940 to May 45 they lost 98 aircraft, most of them after becoming the jamming specialists.
Question are Elint aircraft always so vulnerable?
Yes.
Today the RN has two handy phrases. Hack the Shad which meant kill any enemy aircraft shadowing the fleet. In WW2 that was the FW Condor. In the Cold War the ubiquitous Bear Delta.
The other one was Hammer the Jammer. The jammer was the precursor for an attack and screening attacking aircraft as long as possible.
In WW2 ABC would be sending out jamming signals to confuse the German night fighter radars and conceal the main force bombers. Of course the emissions on the German AI radar frequencies could be used to home on to the emitter.
In the 1970s the Vulcan carried a self defence jammer which could have suffered the same problem. To get around this the jammer would stop jamming and check if the AI was transmitting. This jam-look-jam was designed to interrupt any intercept and avoid HOJ (Home on Jam).