Every military pilot knows, that the greatest threat to his aircraft is the enemy anti air defense net. This usually includes various kinds of radars and SAM platforms. This threat is even greater then enemy air force. That's why electronic warfare – measures undertaken to “blind” enemy radar systems – is so important, and that is why enemy air defenses, alongside with enemy air force, are obvious first targets in modern air warfare.

The US is leading in EW area and continuously is trying to maintain that advantage. A part of it is the newest BAE Systems project called the Adaptive Radar Countermeasures (ARC).

The ARC programme is aimed at enabling airborne electronic warfare (EW) systems to counter new, unknown, and adaptive radars in real-time. This undertaking is developed in cooperation with US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) and BAE BAE Systems has secured a contract modification for it, worth 13.3 million USD.

The EW technologies that have been developed for the ARC programme employ advanced signal processing, intelligent algorithms, as well as machine learning techniques.

In general, EW systems are required to isolate unknown hostile radar signals in dense electromagnetic environments, and generate electronic countermeasures in a bid to ensure success in future anti-access/area denial environments  - e.g.  like those of which China is trying to employ currently.

 

Author: Daniel Kasprzycki

Image: A rendering of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Adaptive Radar Countermeasures (ARC) project. Source: BAE Systems

Source: BAE gets contract modification for DARPA’S electronic warfare development project, www.airforce-technology.com