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by b06tmm 2365 days ago
When I was in the Navy (1977 ~ 1981), our A-6E was equipped with an ECM suite that was designed to intercept and process pulse signals, automatically select the optimum countermeasures technique, and then apply the technique. One of these countermeasures was to send a return signal back to the radar, "telling the radar that the aircraft had accelerated (beyond the speed of light) and was now on the opposite horizon. The effect of this was reported to be a snapping off of the radar mast or tipping over of the mobile trailer the radar was in due to the torque of the radar dish moving to the new location.
2 comments
HeWhoLurksLate 2365 days ago
That's hilarious! Somebody probably had a lot of fun coming up with and testing that idea.
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b06tmm 2365 days ago
There was several different programs the ECM would use and this is the only one I can remember at the moment.

When I went to the ECM school on the system, the first part of the class was listening to pilots being chased by surface to air missiles. The class was in a little building and it was Top Secret classified at the time. We could take notes, but they were locked up in a safe and we couldn't take them back to the squadron.

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clSTophEjUdRanu 2364 days ago
Counter measure techniques for radar are highly classified. They take a long time to develop and once you use them they aren't useful for very long. The enemy adapts.

On one hand, I feel like this tic-tac is the result of one of these techniques. On the other hand, they wouldn't test this out in the open where a Chinese or Russian satellite can listen to these countermeasure pulses.

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