2 ms·

Presumably the military assumes that radar altimeters can be jammed. The potential problem here is that they might be jammed when there is not an actual war in

Presumably the military assumes that radar altimeters can be jammed. The potential problem here is that they might be jammed when there is not an actual war in progress. It's a generic aviation thing and is not specific to any one group.

tolien 6y ago
In a war situation, blasting out high power RF would also be painting a huge target on your antennae for an AGM-88 HARM.
- mhh__ 6y ago
  It's still a game of cat and mouse, because the operators either will have enough sources not to care or be clever enough to only paint a target at the last moment. Anti-radiation missiles seem fun to work on, for example the (now retired) ALARM missile will loiter at 13 km with a parachute then use a secondary rocket motor to attack a target it finds. The signal processing these things do is probably unbelievable.
  - tolien 6y ago
    Thinking about it some more, a radar altimeter is only effective to ~2000 feet so it’s probably going to be a relatively close range highly-directional beam which would make it harder for a seeker head to find but also means you’d need a truck close to the airfield perimeter, painting aircraft on final approach. WRT last minute painting, I guess the E model would help a bit with that: > the AGM-88E Advanced Antiradiation Guided Missile (AARGM), features the latest software, enhanced capabilities intended to counter enemy radar shutdown At 870k USD a pop you wouldn’t want to be lobbing a lot of them, though - as you say, it’s going to cheaper to build jammers than countermeasures to destroy them.
mywittyname 6y ago
I certainly hope that there's some sort of channel-hopping strategy in place to prevent accidental jamming. In fact, I would hope that "can't be accidentally jammed by a bunch of 14 year olds on their cell phones," is a lower-bounds for measuring the efficacy of the system.

tolien 6y ago

In a war situation, blasting out high power RF would also be painting a huge target on your antennae for an AGM-88 HARM.

mhh__ 6y ago
It's still a game of cat and mouse, because the operators either will have enough sources not to care or be clever enough to only paint a target at the last moment. Anti-radiation missiles seem fun to work on, for example the (now retired) ALARM missile will loiter at 13 km with a parachute then use a secondary rocket motor to attack a target it finds. The signal processing these things do is probably unbelievable.
- tolien 6y ago
  Thinking about it some more, a radar altimeter is only effective to ~2000 feet so it’s probably going to be a relatively close range highly-directional beam which would make it harder for a seeker head to find but also means you’d need a truck close to the airfield perimeter, painting aircraft on final approach. WRT last minute painting, I guess the E model would help a bit with that: > the AGM-88E Advanced Antiradiation Guided Missile (AARGM), features the latest software, enhanced capabilities intended to counter enemy radar shutdown At 870k USD a pop you wouldn’t want to be lobbing a lot of them, though - as you say, it’s going to cheaper to build jammers than countermeasures to destroy them.

mywittyname 6y ago

I certainly hope that there's some sort of channel-hopping strategy in place to prevent accidental jamming. In fact, I would hope that "can't be accidentally jammed by a bunch of 14 year olds on their cell phones," is a lower-bounds for measuring the efficacy of the system.