EF-111A

[Lt. James Cater 62]

A plane that i thought i'd never fly but am now doing a campaign in.

 

 

Probaly it was a result of of flying RF4Cs for a bit too long. Anyway, i'm going for it and don't really know anything about the capabilities of this aircraft within the sim. Sure, i know the role of such planes in real life but in ODS it's a bit of a mystery.

 

In my first two missions i've been doing recon over some airbases. Perhaps that was a way the ODS team had to get around certain limitations within the game structure? No matter, the missions so far have been rather "fascinating" (To use the old Air America term) but it's still a stumble in the dark.

 

First off i know the ECM on this plane is something else. Don't know to what extent, but it's way past anything that needs pods. Range of effectiveness? I've gone over and near radars and just shut them down and out via the ever powerful "Z" key with smile producing frequency so far. Had to go + chaff in a few cases but the ECM seems to be the win. Will it reduce things enough for other flights?

 

The last i ask because of my last flight, on the way home i knew that some planes were going to fly over some SAMs, so after checking my fuel state i diverted over to where they had to fly and spent some minutes circling overhead until all were[ clear then countinued on home. Had a few radars tracking but no locks and not a single launch.

 

Was it the aircraft or a fluke?

 

[+Dave 2,318]

It wasnt a fluke we amped the ECM up on it pretty good and I have noticed it wil shut down an entire sector. Also you taking up a station and flying a track was the exact way they did it too.

[Lt. James Cater 62]

Dave,

 

thanks for the info.

 

From flying F-111s in earlier campaigns i learned about going high to conserve fuel. With the capacity it has you can pretty much roam over the map doing your part to contribute to the big picture while also completing your assigned missions. My first mission had a panic inducing encounter with a Mig-25 that i probaly should write up in an AAR, and the second led to a lot of calls to ground control so as to be able to change course to stay alive.

 

The bad part is that now i'm going to go into the teeth of the enemy defense.

 

Oh well, guess i volunteered for this.

[zmatt 2]

The way I understand it, is that the game handles ecm by jamming the radar, not by protecting the aircraft. So with a plane like the spark vark you can cover everyone else. one habit i got into was equipping all the planes in my flight with a different model ecm pod, that way while we were in formation we could cover pretty much every frequency and be immune to all SAMs. I don't how effective this is in game but it can't hurt.

[+Dave 2,318]

Dave,

 

thanks for the info.

 

From flying F-111s in earlier campaigns i learned about going high to conserve fuel. With the capacity it has you can pretty much roam over the map doing your part to contribute to the big picture while also completing your assigned missions. My first mission had a panic inducing encounter with a Mig-25 that i probaly should write up in an AAR, and the second led to a lot of calls to ground control so as to be able to change course to stay alive.

 

The bad part is that now i'm going to go into the teeth of the enemy defense.

 

Oh well, guess i volunteered for this.

 

The EF-111 guys were the first ones in and the last ones out. The funny thing about that is that the EF-111's would take off last, beat the strike packages in (heading to their orbit area). Jam then beat everyone home after they left their orbit area. That is how fast the aircraft was. They used to have the paint always peeled off the nose section.

[+Dave 2,318]

The way I understand it, is that the game handles ecm by jamming the radar, not by protecting the aircraft.

 

By jamming the radar it's protecting the aircraft from being locked onm thus keeping the SAM's away. So yes it is protecting the aircraft.

[zmatt 2]

By jamming the radar it's protecting the aircraft from being locked onm thus keeping the SAM's away. So yes it is protecting the aircraft.

 

What I meant is, in a lot of games the easiest way to code in something like that would be to give the aircraft some value that represents radar resistance. For arcade sims and the like nobody would be any wiser. But it hurts the realism because then ecm only has a localized effect. Wo* games have the ecm degrade the radar (as they should) so one aircrfat with ecm indrectly helps everybody.

 

I didn't figure out that the sim treated ecm more realistically until I started messing with mixing and matching ecm pods.

[column5 62]

By jamming the radar it's protecting the aircraft from being locked onm thus keeping the SAM's away. So yes it is protecting the aircraft.

 

Depends on whether you are using a noise jammer or a deceptive jammer. My perception is that the the deceptive jammers are actually simulating the range-gate pull off technique:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A637535

[+Dave 2,318]

Another thing this sim models is burn through range as well.

[Lt. James Cater 62]

Depends on whether you are using a noise jammer or a deceptive jammer. My perception is that the the deceptive jammers are actually simulating the range-gate pull off technique:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A637535

 

Nice!

 

Sounds like what i've been experiencing.

 

Being wary of Home On Jam, i've used the ECM just to nullify the defensive radars then switched off once supression was achieved. It probaly helps being fast at high altitude.

[Lt. James Cater 62]

Just back from the first mission in the pure ECM role.

 

It took some time to climb to my usual altitude and build up speed so i wasn't able to lead in. Instead, due to different flight paths i only was able to react after the initial SAM launches. Once near a SAM site with the music on everything seemed all right. The crazy part was analyzing all the SAM calls and figuring out exactly what was the worst threat.

The best was when three different sites were shut down in one area and the friendlies were able to do their thing.

 

 

As things turned out, the Vark was last out of the area due to wanting to give others respite from the dreaded 6 o'clock SAM shot.

 

 

This is even freakier than Recce work and probaly the most cerebral job in the WO* series.

[Viper6 3]

What is the best altitude to 'work' from?

[Lt. James Cater 62]

So far i've been at 40,000ft but i'm probaly going to down to 35 or 30,000 soon. Maybe lower for closer target areas.

 

Going very high is good for fuel management and speed but climbing to to 40 is a real pain though.

[Southernap 1]

The Offensive ECM mission which the EF-111A and the EA-6A, EA-6B, EA-3B, EB-66, EF-18G is very important. The typical mission profile is to get to Highest possible altitute and then assume a race track profile until the strike package shows up. From there depending on the mission needs, they will either continue the race track or they will flight certain profiles to better manuver the pods towards the threats. From there the EWO's (Electronic Warfare Officers) or ECMO's (Electronic CounterMeasures Officers) do their voodoo with the ECM.

 

This is a very important mission to the point that the aircrew are constantly studying the threats and figuring out the right flight manuvers to attack. The EWO and ECMO's are also constantly studying the frequencies that the threats are using. This is to do the range gate trick, the figure out where burn through occurs, and to figure out at what range a solid return will come at.

 

Three other aircraft that were ECM aircraft the TBM-3Q, Queer Skyraiders (AD-1Q, AD-2Q, AD-3Q, AD-4Q, and AD-5Q), and EF-10 (F3D-2Q) would typically start at high altitute and fly a gentle sloping dive towards the offending site. Once they got either too close or too low, the aicraft would execute an almost square turn and begin the climb back up to re do it. They had to do this since their antennas were directional along the aircraft datum line. It was a serious pain in the rear. This is what lead to the turnable and tunable antennas in the newer aircraft.

[Lt. James Cater 62]

Looks like i'm staying at 40,000 then!

[Viper6 3]

Copy that!

[jayo 0]

Great discussion here,very interesting......might have to give the Weasel a rest and try the 'Vark,although the thought of sitting pretty at 40'000 right over a nest of SAM's IS a strange one!

[Southernap 1]

In real life most ECM birds weren't flying right over the SAM sites since according to Soviet Intergrated Air Defense Systems (or IADS) you would have a multi-layered approach to protect high value targets (such as bridges, airfields, etc) and as part of that approach there would be AAA sites whose placement was to defend the sam sites. So typically planning would place the flight profiled of the EF-111A or the EA-6B to provide as much "soft kill" over a few of the radar sites without putting the crew in a threatening postion. Those sites where burn through would occur (due to flying right over the site so that the ground based radar would be able to burn through the jammers) a "hard kill" would be set up.

 

To give you an idea of how powerful and useful the ALQ-99 system is as it was applied to the EF-111A. In 1972 at the height of the LInebacker II raids a pair of EA-6B's in EXCAP version (the first production version) from VAQ-132 were flying ECM support of three major raid Alpha strikes from Yankee station against targets as far south as Vinh and as far north as Kep. On top of that the ECMO's detected a number of missile launches against USAF strike packages going against Hanoi. These two aircraft realized they couldn't jam all the track radars so instead they dedicated all thier pods (six total) to jamming the command detenation and the radar fuze in about 100+ SA-2C missiles in the air at the time. A number of aircraft reported missiles going ballistic past them with out detonation and a number reported missiles were still trying to manuver before they were tumbling out of the sky well past when they would normally explode. Both of these aircraft were able to cover that range from approximately 45miles from the coast line at the 40K altittude band.

[Lt. James Cater 62]

Thanks for the tech info Southernap

 

I did allow for burn through and so avoid intentionally flying over sites. The closest i did get knowingly to one was about 6 miles while manuvering to head on to a very active area. The Fan Song tried to get me but no joy for them, it locked the Vark twice but couldn't maintain it. Height , speed, ecm+chaff made for a nice getaway.

 

 

I've figured out what to do now. Basically it's take off and head to altitude, head over near the ingoing strikes, circle near possible SAM areas within range of the strike, cover the egress, complete my assignment, go home.

 

So far, my nightmare is a Mig25 with the Mig29 a close second.

[Lt. James Cater 62]

Advice for anyone who wants to give this a go.....

 

Expect a lonely experience at times.