Electronic Countermeasure is a set of electronics that enable the plane or army or the navy to jams incoming enemy radar signals either by distorts a radar signal so that it provides false information to the observer or electronically masks the radar signal so that it generates an image that is indecipherable (#5 of link page).

Countermeasures are widely use in many new modeled aircraft today that is in material form by chaff (a heat radar jammer or deflictor made from strips of aluminium foil) and also in certain combat aircraft electronic form that is with the help from computers subsystems is used. One of this aircrafts are the EA-6B Prowler.

The picture above shows a EA-6B Prowler.

The EA-6B Prowler is a twin-engined, mid-wing aircraft that is manufactured by the Northrop Grumman Aerospace Corporation. This aircraft uses the basic A-6 Intruder air frame as one of its main construction with onboard computer systems and navigational systems (#6 of link page). The Prowler is designed for a carrier and advanced base operations which is a fully integrated electronic warfare sistem combining long-range, all-weather capabilities with advanced electronic countermeasures where a forward equipment bay, and a pod-shaped faring on the vetical fin that is capable of housing additional avionics equipment (#6 and #7 of link page).

The EA-6B Prowler consist of up to four crew members with includes a pilot and three electronic countermeasures officers (ECMO). The pilot and one ECMO controls the onboard navigation systems as well as fly the plane itself. The other two ECMO officers will be operating the ALQ-99 jammers from aft cockpit. This jammer consists of Onboard Electronic System (OBS) and externally mounted jammer pods where the OBS is capable of monitoring the electronic environment and displaying it to the ECMO's. When a threat is detected, action is taken either by tuning the jammer manually or doing automatically by the computer systems (#8 and #9 of the link page). The ECMO officer that is with the pilot in the cockpit is responsible for navigation, communication, electronic warfare, and "weaponeering" task (#9 of the like page). The aircraft is also capable of destroying radar sites where it can be arm with the HARM missile which is a used to destroy this radar sites appond detection by its onboard radar frequency receiver.

Computer is basically used in the aircraft for processing the signals from the emitters at the tail fin of the aircraft for the propose of display and recording. With this ability, detection, identification, direction-finding, and jammer-set-on-sequence can be done automatically or manually by the crew (#10 of the link page).

Besides it is use onboard the aircraft, computer is as well use in the crew training base where the 15E22C TTT is used. it is consisted of a computer system, simulation equipment, instructor station and a trainee station. The computer system and the simulation equipment provide complete preprogrammed electronic simulation of an aircraft mission that can be recorded of playback during mission critique (#11of link page).

Hope you have the information you needed.

By: Leong Chin Tho

Created on 3 September 2000