Coalition Aircraft Vs Iraqi SAMs – Peter E Davies

Techniques for jamming air defense radars, pioneered during World War II, were accelerated during the Vietnam War when the surface-to-air missile (SAM) became a severe threat to US aircraft. The Phantom II’s first duel with an SA-2 SAM, on July 24, 1965, resulted in the loss of F-4C 63-7599 “Leopard 02” after a missile fired by Soviet Army Maj F.

Ilyinyeh’s team exploded among a close formation of jets flying near Hanoi in poor visibility. A second Phantom II was so badly damaged it was subsequently written off after limping back to an airfield in Thailand. Responding to this threat, the USAF and US Navy quickly modified examples of the very similar B-66 Destroyer and A-3 Skywarrior into dedicated electronic countermeasures (ECM) platforms, with the same basic jamming equipment.

The US Marine Corps chose to convert 28 A-6A Intruder bombers into EA-6A jammers from 1969. The jet had a “football” fairing attached to its vertical tail, positioned here so that its contents were as far away as possible from the aircraft’s underwing jamming pods in order to avoid interference from the latter.

The fairing housed a Bunker-Ramo AN/ALQ-86 receiver/surveillance system to gather external radar emissions, an AN/ALQ-41 track breaker for I- and J-band radar and an AN/ALQ-100 self-protection system. Two or more Raytheon AN/ALQ-76 underwing pods contained AN/ALQ-31B, AN/ALQ-54 and AN/ALQ-55 jammers and chaff dispensers. EA-6As saw extensive service in Vietnam jamming SAMs and anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) radar. Some A-6As were modified to carry the US Navy-developed AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missile (ARM), which worked with the aircraft’s Digital Integrated Attack and Navigation Equipment. Using “Shrike Ranging Mode,” it detected hostile radars such as the SA-2’s “Fan Song” unit from up to 40 miles away.

To ensure the possibility of a hit, the missile could only be fired (in a 30-degree loft delivery 5 The early SAM threat for Western air arms took the form of the SA-2 (or 11D, the standard S-75 export model), an example of which is seen here on its SM-63-1 launcher near Hanoi, in North Vietnam, in the late 1960s.

More than two decades later, the “Guideline,” in its various upgraded forms, still posed serious problems for CENTAF units charged with hitting targets in Iraq and occupied Kuwait. (Dr István Toperczer Collection) against emitting radar) when the jet was 12 miles or less from the target. However, such close proximity meant that the launch aircraft was well within range of SAMs and AAA.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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