The United States attaches great importance to electronic warfare. Every military air operation is accompanied by the appearance of electronic interference, suppressing the opponent's radar and preventing the opponent from detecting the entry of the US military.
And now, flying in the air is the most professional electronic jammer in the United States, the EA-6B.
It can be seen from the naming that this is an improvement based on the A-6 two-seater attack aircraft. Its body is lengthened and reinforced on the basis of the A-6 to accommodate four crew members. This makes the entire plane look more exotic, like a big-headed fly.
At the same time, it also has an electronic jamming antenna fairing at the vertical tail.
As an electronic jammer, its core is the AN/ALQ-99 tactical jamming system, and it can also carry five external electronic jamming pods. One of them is under the belly and four are under the wings. Each pod is equipped with two interfering transceivers, which can interfere with one of seven bands. Each pod can be independently powered by itself, powered by a generator driven by a pneumatic fan at the front of the pod.
This kind of aircraft looks unusual in appearance. At the same time, it is also a record-breaking one. It has been in service for more than half a century, and even after the U.S. Air Force’s electronic jammer was retired, it became the only electronic jammer in the U.S. military arsenal. Up.
Now, it is flying close to the E-2 early warning aircraft, because the mission this time is very special.
Normally, it followed the attack formation, flew outside the enemy's defense line, and carried out electronic suppression. This time, its mission range is very narrow, and it can be completed in the airspace of the current early warning aircraft.
At this time, all commands are handed over to the early warning aircraft in the air to complete.
At this time, on the early warning aircraft, three early warning personnel were sitting in front of the operation platform, closely watching the surrounding airspace. (According to the practice of the U.S. Navy, the three are air traffic control officer, battle control officer and radar officer)
They are considered a performance this time, so they must have the cooperation of the Soviets, and now they need to find the traces of the Soviets first.
"A suspicious electromagnetic signal was found." At this moment, the air traffic control officer said: "Our PDS has found it."
For the E-2C early warning aircraft, the most important detection method is the APS-120 radar overhead. At the same time, compared to the previous model, it has also added
AN/ALR-59 passive detection system (code-named PDS).
This system contains four sets of receiving antennas, which are located at the ends of the nose, tail, and horizontal tail. They can receive electromagnetic signals from the air, sea, and ground, and are controlled by the central processing unit for synchronous scanning; when electromagnetic signals are received, they are processed The device compares the signal strength and time difference of different receiving antennas, automatically calculates the precise location of the signal source, and can also automatically analyze the relevant parameters of the signal and make judgments.
The biggest feature of this system is that the effective receiving distance is more than 740 kilometers, which is twice that of airborne radar. In this way, it can be the first to detect the enemy's signal.
As soon as the model was received, the on-board computer had already begun to analyze it. Two seconds later, the air traffic control officer said happily: "Sure enough, it is moss. They are here. They are about 700 kilometers away from us, and they are located in the north. "
The war officer's face was smiling: "Hawkeye calls the Lone Ranger, and Hawkeye calls the Lone Ranger. The guests are here, and everything is done according to the original plan."
As usual, when the U.S. Navy conducts the Rim of the Pacific military exercises, the Soviets do not make trouble. It is absolutely not addictive. The first thing they send out is the early warning aircraft. The old moss early warning aircraft will spy The electromagnetic signal of the US Navy, this time, let the Soviets see the powerful strength of the US Navy!
"The Lone Ranger received it." Nathan finished the call on the radio, and said to the radar officer Gus behind him: "Air-targeting is about to begin, now it's going to accelerate!"
No matter what the missile is, when launching, the carrier needs to fly at the maximum speed possible. In this way, when the missile goes out, it superimposes the carrier's own speed, allowing the missile to fly farther.
Now, the afterburner at the tail is opened, and the two TF30 engines are pushing the Tomcat fighter to accelerate and accelerate.
At the same time, Gus in the rear cabin also began to prepare nervously, warming up the radar in front of him, ready to guide.
There is a misunderstanding in later generations. The Soviet Union’s radar is electronic tube. The United States has long abandoned electronic tubes and entered the era of transistors. That only refers to the processing circuit behind. For radar, even a flat-slit radar, a device that emits electromagnetic waves, then It is also a vacuum tube and needs to be preheated.
At the same time, after receiving the information, a frigate sailing in the waters 200 kilometers north of the formation in advance also began preparations before launching the target aircraft.
On the sea, puffs of white smoke rose, and one target drone was launched from the frigate. Six target drones climbed up to six kilometers and then leveled out, separated by about six hundred to one thousand meters. Flew towards the predetermined airspace.
The six echoes are extremely clear.
"The drone has been launched, please pay attention to intercepting the target." The report of the Hawkeye early warning aircraft continued to be heard in the headset. At the same time, the airborne radar on the Hawkeye early warning aircraft also saw several shiny targets. Good intentions, obviously, the other side's early warning aircraft is already close, and it is now where you can use the other side's airborne radar to scan the airspace of your own target.
At present, the Hawkeye early warning aircraft, the Soviet early warning aircraft, and the airspace for shooting are exactly on the three vertices of a triangle, and the distance between each other is about 200 kilometers.
"Received." At this time, the Tomcat fighter was struggling to break through the sound barrier, at a height of 15,000, and continued to move forward in the sharp cone of the sonic boom. Lieutenant Gus behind was highly concentrated.
The AWG-9 airborne radar has multiple modes, and now, if you want to conduct a multi-target attack, you must use the TWS mode. (Search while tracking)
This mode severely tested the performance of the airborne radar. At this time, the flat-panel slot radar antenna in front burst out with a maximum power of 10 kilowatts, and countless electromagnetic waves swept toward a narrow airspace ahead.
At the same time, data refresh is also proceeding rapidly, almost every two seconds, which is also a prerequisite for multi-target attacks.
Only when the data is refreshed fast enough, the radar can switch quickly, which is equivalent to a multi-core processor, which can take care of multiple targets.
At the same time, the detection range will be halved. The terrible AWG-9 radar, when used in PDS (Pulse Doppler Search) mode, can have a detection range of more than 315 kilometers. It is simply a small early warning aircraft. .
And with the current mode of scanning the airspace, it has drastically reduced to half, only about 160 kilometers, that is to say, when it finds the target, it is almost within the range of the missile.