AirForces Monthly – September 2019

1: A C-17A assigned to the 315th Airlift

Wing out of Joint Base Charleston, South

Carolina, deploys a volley of fl ares as part

of an operational readiness exercise last

November. Infrared countermeasures are

becoming increasingly sophisticated to keep

pace with advances in air defence systems

and sensors. USAF/Staff Sgt Nicholas A Priest 2: A

Royal Australian Air Force No 77 Squadron F/A-

18A carries an AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface

Standoff Missile (JASSM) during operational

test and evaluation at Woomera Range in South

Australia. As an alternative to stealth, long-

range weapons like this offer a way of keeping

outside the range of an enemy’s defence

systems. LAC Scott Woodward/Commonwealth of

Australia 3: Airmen de-arm an F-35A from the

421st Fighter Squadron, Hill Air Force Base,

Utah, after arrival at Spangdahlem Air Base,

Germany, on June 11, as part of a Theater

Security Package. Even the latest generation

of stealth aircraft are tailored to reduce radar

signature across relatively narrow bands of the

spectrum. USAF/Airman 1st Class Valerie Seelye

4: Specialised suppression of enemy air

defences (SEAD) aircraft like the EA-18G

are considered critical should the US and its

allies need to penetrate the defence system

of a ‘near-peer’ enemy. This Electronic Attack

Squadron 135 (VAQ-135) ‘Black Ravens’ Growler

was taking part in a Red Flag exercise at Nellis

Air Force Base, Nevada. Jamie Hunter

http://www.airforcesmonthly.com #378 September 2019 // 63

of the game are rather straightforward

and involve a combination of physics and

cunning. Let’s start with the technical bit

first – the physics boils down to three

simple techniques: stay outside detection

range, blank out the other side’s detection

capability or deceive it to look elsewhere.

Staying outside detection range is what

stealth characteristics aim to achieve. By

reducing detection range, you can actually

decrease standoff and, in extremis, penetrate

an enemy’s defence system. It goes without

saying, that knowing where systems are is

a vital element in staying out of detection

range, and long-term surveillance is aimed

at gathering both system locations and

electronic signatures to enable this. Of

course, even more critical are missile fly-

out and engagement ranges – respectively,

the weapon’s ‘legs’, before it loses kinetic

energy, and the practical envelope at which

it can shoot down a target. Historically, these

have been much lower than the detection

ranges, but new systems are increasingly

able to shoot over the horizon and this is

forcing strategic assets such as surveillance

platforms further away from the front line.

Jamming and spoofi ng

Standoff or even self-protection ‘noise’

jamming is the next simple technique that

aims to deny or at least disrupt detection;

it does this by swamping hostile equipment

• creating so much ‘electronic noise’ within
  an operating system that its users have to
  de-tune it to such an extent that detection
  ranges drop dramatically, or are even totally
  shut down. However, this technique has a
  few drawbacks in that it requires significant
  power for an air platform to overcome a
  ground-based system with greater generation
  capacity; moreover, it can actually act as a

beacon for enemy sensors able to home

in on a jamming signal. Finally, it needs to

be able to match the operating frequency

of the targeted hardware, and today’s air

defence systems are increasingly able to

hop frequency incredibly quickly, which

needs an equally agile jamming signal or

‘barrage’ jamming of a wide spectrum band,

which again demands significant power.

And so, the final technique is one of

deception rather than avoidance, and

this requires an electronic signal that can

decoy, distract or divert detection methods.

These are more prevalent in modern

The art of

avoiding detection

“Now you

see me,

now you

don’t...”

that render current stealth designs less

effective or even defunct. So, the evolution

of the airborne cat-and-mouse game

continues. But, while we have seen major

air powers each pursue their own versions

of stealth aircraft, the greatest advances

have perhaps been in the development of

detection and interception technologies, so

maybe aircraft are losing this ‘arms race’.

Of course, stealth aircraft still only form a

fraction of even very modern and wealthy

air forces, so what are the other tools

and tactics available to crews in today’s

battlespace? Well quite simply, the rules

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