October 23, 2001 at 9:10 am
Hi,
I want to try to make an inventory of Soviet EW assets in the Cold War era here. And, more importantly how they were used. At first glance, the Soviets had a lot of different EW assets at that time, more than NATO had.
To name a few:
Su-24MP Fencer F
Yak-28PP Brewer E
AN-12PP Cub
Il-28PP Beagle
Tu-22PD, Tu-22KPD Blinder
Tu-22P1, -P2 Blinder
Several Mi-8 Hip jammer versions
Tu-16Ye Badger K
Tu-16PP Badger H
MiG-25BM Foxbat F
Also, “standard” strike aircraft like the Su-24M Fencer and Su-17 Fitter could carry radar locating pods in combination with anti-radiation missiles (ARMs).
Furthermore, the Soviets developed several ARMs, like the AS-4, AS-9, AS-11, AS-12 and AS-17. Most of them were based on AGMs. Some of them were purpose built ARMs. Also, the Soviets were very early in developing decoys.
The list of aircraft and ARMs might not be fully complete. Therefore I welcome any additions.
I wonder how these EW aircraft were to be operated during an air strike. I can imagine that the An-12PP was used as a stand-off jammer. The Tu-22 and Tu-16 EW versions would probably be used to escort other bombers, whereas the Su-24MP would probably be used for escort jamming of tactical strike packages. I can imagine that the MiG-25BM would act (semi-)independently, because the lower speed of strike packages would only lower its efficiency.
Most of the above is speculation on my part. Does anybody know more specific details of how these aircraft would have been used during Cold War scenarios?
Would you rate the Soviet EW assets as good or bad?
Bset regards,
Ference.