EO MISSILE APPROACH WARNING

1. The greatest threat to aircraft and 1. The greatest threat to aircraft and helicopters comes from IR missiles. As these are not normally associated with radar guidance, aircrew get no warning of the impending danger unless they are lucky enough to either see the weapon being launched or in flight. The proliferation of IR missiles is high, if we look only at shoulder launched ‘Manpad’ systems the most numerous is the SA-7 with many hundreds of thousands having been produced. The US Stinger has been sold in numbers approaching 50,000 while the French Mistraal numbers 12,000 to 18 different countries. The following examples give an indication as to the success of passively guided IR weapons:
a. During 1977 to 1985 905 of all loses were to IR guided weapons. 4.4% were to radar guided weapons.
b. During the Gulf War 78% of all loses were to IR weapons.
c. Over the last 20 years only 10% of aircraft have been shot down by radar guided weapons.

ELECTRONIC WARFARE

1. Electronic Warfare (EW) is military action to exploit the electromagnetic spectrum which encompasses the interception, identification and location of electromagnetic emissions, the employment of electromagnetic energy to reduce or prevent hostile use of the electromagnetic spectrum and actions to ensure its effective use by friendly forces.

The 3 major divisions within EW are Electronic Attack, Electronic Protection and Electronic Warfare Support.

ELECTRONIC WARFARE SUPPORT

1. Electronic Warfare Support (ES) is that division of EW involving actions tasked by, or under direct control of, an operational commander to search for, intercept, identify and locate sources of intentional and unintentional radiated electromagnetic energy for the purpose of immediate threat recognition. Thus ES provides information required for immediate decisions involving EW operations, threat avoidance, targeting and other tactical actions. 2. The sub-divisions of ES include the following: a. Combat Direction Finding that are actions taken to search for, intercept and locate sources of intentional and unintentional radiated electromagnetic energy. b. Combat Threat Warning are actions taken to identify intentional and unintentional radiated electromagnetic energy for the purpose of immediate threat recognition and warning. This will include for example warning and the cueing of ECM techniques in the tactical environment. This is particularly important as the application of countermeasures at the correct time is essential. Too early and the countermeasures may give away the presence of the attacking aircraft, too late and the aircraft may be engaged successfully.