Technology Explained

The Anatomy of the Tacjammer

The practice of using tactical aircraft to carry high power radar jamming equipment originated during WWII, when RAF Defiants fitted with Mandrel jammers first disrupted the operation of the Luftwaffe’s Freya A-band acquisition radars.

Defiants equipped with Mandrel jammers or Moonshine deception repeaters and rocket firing Typhoons thus laid the foundations of modern tactical support jamming and defence suppression. The use of these types also underscores a trend followed well into the seventies; that of fitting offensive electronic warfare equipment and defence suppression weapons to types which had outlived their usefulness in their originally envisaged roles. It wasn’t until the late 1960s that the pivotal role of Electronic Warfare (EW) in tactical defence penetration and suppression was fully accepted and as a result, specialised derivatives of frontline tactical aircraft developed to fill these roles.

The first of these to fill the former role were the US Navy’s EA-6A and EA-68 derivatives of the A-6 Intruder family, two types which supplemented and supplanted the ungainly and obsolete EF-1Os and EKA-3s. These new aircraft were true Support Jamming (SJ) aircraft, capable of flying Escort Jamming (EJ) and Stand-Off Jamming (SCJ) missions. Standoff jammers will orbit outside of the lethal radius of hostile defenses and jam radar and communications from a distance, escort jammers accompany strike aircraft into hostile airspace and jam acquisition radars and communications from close range.

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