ALARM

[Easy Street]

BVRAAM,

Open source data such as that found in Wiki are all you’ll get (or again, should get!). One very good reason for continuing to protect such data after a piece of kit is retired is that the data could serve to prove the credibility of sources who may have leaked information while the kit was still in service. As those sources may still be active then there is a clear imperative to avoid corroborating their earlier tales. Or, indeed, to avoid exposing sources of deliberate misinformation!

[BVRAAM]

Easy Street, I understand. Thanks.

Your latter point is what I suspect - I can't see any truth to it being 93km - an ex-Weasel told me himself that the idea of SEAD is to fly high, slow (within cornering speed) and letting the system know you're coming so you can send a shot straight down the radar beam's centreline which requires getting in close and within SAM range, so it's highly likely that 93K figure is deliberately inaccurate.

I won't ask anything else on this subject.

[Easy Street]

Originally Posted by BVRAAM

Your latter point is what I suspect - I can't see any truth to it being 93km - an ex-Weasel told me himself that the idea of SEAD is to fly high, slow (within cornering speed) and letting the system know you're coming so you can send a shot straight down the radar beam's centreline which requires getting in close and within SAM range, so it's highly likely that 93K figure is deliberately inaccurate.

With respect to the ex-Weasel, ALARM was a very different beast to the weapons he would have used. As mentioned by others above, ALARM had loitering and other modes that did not need the SAM to be provoked into action immediately. Hence most of the tactics and effective ranges bore little resemblance to those used with HARM and its predecessors.

[Just This Once...]

As covered earlier, the differences between HARM and ALARM could not be greater when things like range are considered. When you have a weapon suspended under a 'chute things like winds aloft become a key factor, with canopy drift vs sensor regard vs altitude vs reducing ballistic reach et al.

[newt]

​​​​​I was the desk officer in Operational Requirements for Alarm many moons ago! It was early days for defence suppression! There was a competition for the contract and to beat Texas Instruments with Harm, British Aerospace designed all sorts of extras into it! A two stage motor and the loiter capability for instance! Needless to say, M Thatcher thought the contract should go to a U.K. company! On her insistence, it was the very first Fixed Price Contract with British Aerospace! It was some months before they admitted that the motor was a problem! Eventually, as I recall, the contract came in at twice the price and took twice as long before delivery! Just thought you might be interested! Needless to say, M Thatcher was not impressed and my director had to fend off some flack from Number Ten!

[BVRAAM]

ALARM seems more capable than HARM then in certain situations!

It's a role I find very interesting; it sounds like great fun!

[ORAC]

Now of course you do it with drones. A small swarm to loiter in the area in orbit for several hours, just waiting for the radar to go active.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAI_Harop

[BVRAAM]

Originally Posted by ORAC

Now of course you do it with drones. A small swarm to loiter in the area in orbit for several hours, just waiting for the radar to go active.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAI_Harop

That thing belongs in a movie!

[ORAC]

Oh, that nothing compared to what’s in the pipeline.....

You Tube

[E-Spy]

Originally Posted by BVRAAM

ALARM seems more capable than HARM then in certain situations!

It's a role I find very interesting; it sounds like great fun!

Fun? Look up the origins of YGBSM!

[AR1]

Some very early ALARM action in Michael Napiers operational history of the Tornado. Worth a read for the GW1 section alone.