The following excerpt is from NAVAIR 01-85ADF-2-23 A-6E Principles of Operation – Electronic Countermeasures Systems (15 July 1990 Change 1 – 15 December 1991):

44. COUNTERMEASURES SET AN/ALQ-167. The AN/ALQ-167 countermeasures set is an ECM system used for radar and missile system test and evaluation and personnel training. It is essentially a pod mounted AN/DLQ-38 countermeasures set, which is installed on a tray within the pod for carriage on the aircraft. Noise and deception jamming are generated by the set to provide an ECM environment for microwave-oriented weapons. The AN/ALQ-167 countermeasures set is presented in NAVAIR 01-85ADF-75.

I presume that the primary purpose of the AN/ALQ-167 was for training, but when Desert Storm rolled around intel discovered the ALQ-126 didn’t provide as much coverage as was necessary. Subsequently modifications (most likely software only) were made to the pod and it was hastily readied for combat.

I have been looking into the eternal fight in between RF missiles and Fighters ‘s ECMs .

There is a lot of infos on the open Net , including some rather interesting studies but the problem is to find enough data on the latest ECCM techniques used by missiles like Amraam , Mica , R-77 .

These missiles are all using some kind of mono-static multipulse radar .

Latest ECMs must use some kind of Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) techniques to try to fool the incoming missile(s) .

From the Net :

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/5578/phaseshift.jpg

Of course , the defender must first detect the missile ‘s radar but this is not a problem nowadays if the RWR is up to speed .
When the missile goes “active” , the fight missile-ECM begins .
Missiles like late Amraams and Mica are using some very clever tricks (ECCM) to try to “resist” the deceptive jamming , but how ?

Here , I wanted to explain by myself how it is done until I found an excellent post from a guy called Gambit . Since his explainations are tip top , I decided to copy/paste what he said . If he ‘s reading , I thank him 🙂
Here is what he said :

(Thank you again Mr. Gambit)
Now , the DRFM capabilities have increased tenfold the past 10 years to the point that missiles have very little chance against powerful ECMs .
Missile ‘s radar usualy use the X band (8-12 Ghz) , very few are using K (12-18 Ghz) , Ka (18-24 Ghz) or even Ku (24-40 Ghz) bands .
(it is the reason why ECM suite like Spectra are going up to 40 Ghz) .

It has been said that some ECM suite like Typhoon ‘s Praetorian are capable to listen simultaneously the whole range of X band while sampling at up to 300-500 Mhz . Spectra sampling seems to be 500-700 Mhz .
Thalès Carbone system does even better and it seems that the sampling is up to 2 Ghz but this is classified .
Sampling rate is usualy 10 to 12 bits with a resolution comprised in between 2 and 0.5 nanoseconds (!) with Up to 4 independent and coordinated range, Doppler, amplitude target returns per DRFM channel .
What I don ‘t know is how many DRFM channels are used in systems like Praetorian and Spectra . Since Spectra is using multiple Bragg cells channelizers which are even faster because it is optical devices and it uses less filtering (more efficient) , it is even harder to guess how fast the system can duplicate the pulse-train and how many pulse-trains can be treated simultaneously .

More I think about it , more I think that missile ‘s radars are easy fooled by such ECM suites .
So , RF (EM) missiles should have a very low pk .
This is the reason why medium to long range IR missile (Mica) are probably the best way to deal with top range fighters , especialy stealthy ones .

As I said many times , it is not because a EM missile has been fired that the target will get destroyed . Even a salvo of said missiles can be fooled .

What do you think ?

Cheers .

Interesting post Bluewings, thanks.

Do you have a link to Gambit’s original post?

I was very surprised to hear about the retirement of our Harrier’s. I knew defence cuts were planned, but I didn’t realise this was even on the horizon.:(

Lets stick with the would-be figures, not the max’ed up figures..
B.t.w. whats the F-15C max pre-take-off weight?

Thanks

(1) An F-15C full of internal full + 3 full external tanks + full CFTs + wing pylons + centreline pylon + 4 LAU-128 missile racks, would weigh 68391lbs. If you include 6 Aim-120s and 2 Aim-9s, weight will be around 70827lbs.

The same configuration as (1) minus the CFTs would yield a weight of 56390lbs and 58826lbs respectively.

The same configuration as (1) minus the CFTs, centreline tank and pylon, would be 51806lbs and 54242lbs respectively.

The same configuration as (1) minus the CFTs and wing tanks, would be 47820lbs and 50256lbs respectively.

The same configuration as (1) minus the CFTs, wing tanks, centreline tank and pylon, would be 43236lbs and 45672lbs respectively.

F-15A and C models were limited to 7.33 Gs. Structural upgrades to the E model allowed it to achieve 9 Gs.

The F-15C (later models at least) is definately 9g capable and allowed to venture into this region.

Now would it make any different if the F-15 got the new AN/APG-63(V)3 AESA radar And Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System?

The new radar have quite improved resolution and jamming resistance, perhaps get tracking on that Mig-31 a little earlier on.
But with no new missiles with better range its not getting any lock-on earlier soo..

Whats it gonna be?

Thanks

Yes, this is a very good point. The ability of each radar to detect the target and also to maintain a lock during an engagment is a very important issue.

So (to be sure), then you say that the max. payload of F-15E is about 24,000 lbs, you mean armament + pods + fuel tanks (= empty weight + fuel weight) + pylons etc.?

Yes, exactly.