Electronic warfare

SAE 100 Future look: Today's combat aircraft commonly use electronic warfare (EW) receivers and jammers for self-protection.

However, the network-centric battlespace of the future will give truly integrated EW suites broader intelligence and targeting roles. The Sensors Forward initiative of the U.S. Air Force (USAF), for example, makes every airborne sensor a node in a targeting network ready to strike enemy emitters instantly. Other U.S. services and U.S. allies share the vision. Integrating effective, reliable, affordable EW equipment with onboard aircraft systems and global information grids will require advances in EW hardware and battle-management software.

ITT Avionics builds and integrates EW suites that detect and defeat radar, IR, and electro-optical air defenses. ITT started development of today's ALQ-211 family of RF countermeasures to protect U.S. Army Apache helicopters from Soviet-model air defenses. The basic system identifies enemy radars, shows their location and status on cockpit digital maps, and can jam them automatically. Highly integrated RF circuits in multichip assemblies, SEMs (standard electronic modules), and PCI backplanes made enormous processing and jamming power small enough and light enough for helicopters. The same technology spawned a family of EW systems to protect the F-16 fighter, the CV-22 Special Operations tilt rotor, and other helicopters from modern threats.