Originally Posted by
pr00ne
We never had SEAD/DEAD/EA before, so why in a much smaller actual war fighting force should we suddenly demand one now?
Huge advances in ground-based air defence capability are a very good reason. My objection to a dedicated SEAD/DEAD capability is not so much that we can’t afford a dedicated squadron (you’re right, we can’t) but rather that such capability needs to be inherent to our ‘regular’ combat aircraft to give them any chance of surviving. Examples? Back in the autumn, CAS announced a project to develop a jammer-equipped version of the F-35’s Spear 3 missile, presumably to provide close-in support to other weapons or aircraft. It’s also one of the reasons why so much has been invested in developing the E-scan radar for Typhoon.
LJ,
ALARM was obsolete long ago and I think the future of ESM- and ARM-based SEAD more generally is in question given the combination of improved ‘coarse’ tracking with track-via-missile SAM endgame guidance, which together mean that SAM radars spend very little time emitting (note that the HARM replacement, AARGM, has GPS and an active radar seeker on board in addition to the passive seeker). I’ll reiterate my view that Typhoon ECR is aimed at customers without stealth and/or AESA-based SAR and electronic attack.