A 56 page PDF Growler EA-18G Special AIR International Magazine April
2013 Vol.84 No.4
Esim. sivulla 12
An interesting fact about the ALQ-99 is its sheer jamming power. A single Growler loaded with multiple pods could shut down electronic systems on much of the US east coast.
NGJ:n sotamoodin käyttö vahingossa ei jäisi huomaamatta keneltäkään jos jo Vietnam-era ALQ-99t pimentäisi itärannikon.
Sivulla 39 kuinka paljon 5 kk deploymentin jälkeen huolto mahdollisesti vie henkilöstöä
The squadron completed the seven month deployment on February 2, 2013 when its five EA-18Gs landed at NAS Whidbey Island. One hundred and eighty maintenance and support personnel arrived at Whidbey on January 30 ready to receive the jets two days later.
Sivulla 41 oli jo meiltä kai unohtunut kuinka Prowlerissa oli 4 ukkoa työssä... ja ei A2A-itsepuolustustehtävää.
From an electronic attack (EA) perspective, the mission fl own by a four-man Prowler is now undertaken by a crew of two in the EA-18G. The author was curious to know how Growler crews are adapting to an operational environment, “It is a challenge,” said Lt Cdr Lisa, who explained that the cockpit display and automation enables a two-man Growler crew to perform the EA mission. But the Growler also allows other missions to be undertaken – air-toair surveillance and some self-protection – which the Prowler, lacking an air-to-air capability, never did. “Automation and technology has enabled us to work co-operatively but the workload is extremely high,” said the maintenance officer. “Sometimes we have mission areas that we de-couple. We use the displays and non-verbal communication. The HMCS, for example, works in that way – I can see where my crewman is looking by seeing a symbol on the display and direct him, if required, to the target using the system,” he said.
Sivulta 49 RAAFin osuutta. Siinä korostuu SH:n rooli siltana F-111 ja F-35 välillä. Niiden piti olla helposti konvertoitavissa G:ksi, mikä auttoi myymään ratkaisun (siten että G-konversiot toisi AEA:ta F-35 rinnalle). Kuitenkin G:tä ostettiin myöhemmin uutena. Eli ei voi täysin selkeitä ajatusviivoja vetää Suomeen vaikka JASSMien, Hornetien ja Natottomuuden osalta on myös yhteistä.
On se mukava, että 2013 alkaen ovat kehitelleet doktriinia ja parannuksia. Growleriin hypättäisiin kuin liikkuvaan junaan ja NGJ varmistaa, ettei sitä laiteta paaliin.
Growlerin ongelmaksi voisi kuvitella sen käytön harjoittelun. Kokonaan USAssa ellei tulla vedetyksi jopa lentotukialuksille (periaatteessa olisi mahdollista, mutta ei politiikan näkemykset puolla) sillä kyky on harvinaistakin harvinaisempi. Melkein olisi johonkin savimajaharjoitteluun osallistuttava, että oppisi tuntemaan heikkoudet ja vahvuudet logistiikassa ja epätietoisuuteen liittyvässä häröilyssä. Ei niitä näillä näkymin tule esim. JEF:iin nakitetulla Hornet-osastolla.
Sivulla 53 on tirisevää pihviä NGJ muodossa
Some NGJ issues have not yet been resolved.
Whether the final NGJ design will be exportable or not remains uncertain (
), although this is obviously of great importance to the Royal Australian Air Force. While the navy had originally specified that the NGJ be able to operate at supersonic speeds, this requirement was dropped before the Analysis of Alternatives (AoA), as was the requirement for one NGJ pod to cover the entire spectrum.
The Growler will typically operate with three pods. Two will be NGJ pods with identical frequency band capability. The third, carried on the centreline station, will be either an ALQ-99 or future increment 2 NGJ pod.
Tämähän muuttui sittemmin kolmeksi erilaiseksi pömpeliksi. En ole varma onko NGJ mid-bandeja tarkoitus olla kaksi yhtäaikaa?
Kuinka 2005 saavutettiin ALQ-99 kehityspotentiaalin rajat
Plenty of funding came to bear for the Growler aircraft, but there was also realisation that an upgrade to the ALQ-99 tactical jamming system (which clocked up its 40th year in operation in 2011) lacked suf cient funding. Over the past 25 years individual components of the ALQ-99 have been upgraded. “We have reached the ceiling of technology, there was nothing more we could do with the ALQ-99,” said Capt John Green Airborne Electronic Attack Program Manager with PMA-234.
“We hit that ceiling about 2005. There are little tweaks that allow it to go after new target sets, particularly in communications, and for asymmetric warfare [a reference to IEDs] used in Afghanistan and Iraq. But for dealing with double-digit SAMs in a future combat operation the ceiling has been hit.”
The navy needed new architecture and a new system which was recognised to be the NGJ. An AoA was launched and briefed out in April 2010. The results were kept internal to the navy and were released as part of a normal acquisition process by the OSD (Office of the Secretary of Defense).
PMA-234 attended a resources, requirements and review board or R3B at the Pentagon in October 2010 to validate the results of the AoA. R3B is now a standard procedure for any navy acquisition programme. The outcome of the board provided an initial validation for developing the NGJ system for the EA-18G.
Two-year development contracts focused entirely on maturing the technology required for the NGJ were awarded to four different contractors; Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, ITT with Boeing, and BAE Systems. PMA-234 asked each contractor to place its technology into the context of a system, so technologies were developed that could be packaged in a pod of the size required by the navy. Capt Green explained: “The continuing challenge on the Growler aircraft is to get a lot of capability, which demands a lot of power generation and cooling capability, in a tactically relevant way.”
An example of a high-powered jammer is the Rivet Fire electronic countermeasures system used on USAF EC-130H Compass Call aircraft. But a C-130 size aircraft can’t get close enough to the fight and remain safely outside of the SAM engagement zones. Consequently the Rivet Fire used on Compass Call has to be high-powered to be effective but from a stand-off range great enough so that it remains safe.
Size and payload are crucial for the NGJ, but physics constrain both. By definition to put out a lot of power that power has to be generated. The EA-18G does not have the capacity to generate a lot of excess power (see below).
Entäs Gripukka E. Voih!
NGJ:n AESA vs. tutkan
Active arrays present unique challenges. An AESA radar used for ground mapping and air-to-air search works best with a large flat plate because this enables the system to focus a lot of energy and form a good beam. Electronic attack is really no different.
The major difference is the need for almost 100% duty cycle or continuous wave active array. Most AESA radars use pulse power at a 25-30% duty cycle.
NGJ will use the same array technology as radar but rather than pulsing on and off like radar, NGJ requires continuous wave power to conduct full-on jamming at nearly 100% duty cycle.
That requires a lot of efficiency and cooling to avoid excess heat creation and amplifier burn-out.
The arrays themselves encompass three requirements: prime power, jammer efficiency and the exciter, each of which needs a technological solution.
s. 54 Arexis rip ellei suoranaisesti taio sähköä
NGJ has to generate its own power just like the ALQ-99. Existing jammers (US and international) are smaller than the ALQ-99 and draw power from the aeroplane. But in general those systems require 10kW of power or less. “We need tens of kilowatts. Ideally we would like to have 150 even 200kW of power, but we do not have that amount of power organic to the aeroplane available,” explained Capt Green.
NGJ’s power requirement is so great that it would require close to 50% of the power generated onboard the aircraft.
Growler simply can’t allocate that much power to the NGJ because much of it is taken by systems such as the mission-critical APG79 AESA radar.
On NGJ, the RAT will be internally mounted in the mid-section because active arrays cannot be mechanically steered and therefore require a clear field of view and need to be mounted in the pod’s forward and aft sections. Opting for a ducted ram air turbine capable of generating 100kW (or more) of power requires a sophisticated design.
Eli miksi ei tullut ALQ-99:n tapaan ropellia enää.
But has the use of the new inlet and internal ram had an impact on the overall size of the NGJ pod? “More weight than size,” replied Capt Green, “so we have encouraged our contractors to reduce the weight of the ram air turbine and the generator behind it to the greatest degree possible.”
RAT ei siis ollut syy NGJ MB pömpelin isoon tilavuuteen? Siitähän tuli ns. vitun iso. Joten mikä syynä? Ylivoimainen kyky?
NGJ pod’s physical size will not differ fundamentally from the current ALQ-99. The ALQ-99 weighs around 1,000lb (454kg) while the mid-band NGJ will weigh about 1,200lb (545kg) with a smaller sub-500lb (227kg) highband pod planned for later in the programme.
Taisi käydä toisin.
The US military requires exciters in its arsenal with the capability to generate waveforms that are very smart, which at times are arbitrary, and sometimes very pro-forma, ie, it looks like a certain profile. This latter requirement is a tool for deceiving a potential adversary with waveforms that look like a certain radar. That is a capability that is currently not available with the ALQ-99 which has an analogue paradigm.
“NGJ will be a 100% digital system allowing us to react and fool a potential adversary’s radars, data links and systems in ways that we could not have done with the ALQ-99,” said Green.
But how much effort is being placed into the NGJ to ensure it keeps up with ongoing technology in terms of its future capability and upgradeability to counter the perceived threats from around the world? Capt Green was quick to reply: “We’ve had a lot of success with the ALQ-99 because of our ability to react and create new techniques. We do a lot of testing every year to understand our potential adversary’s systems, and then to be able to react and create new techniques. That will continue.”
Eli se tekniikkageneraattori vaatii "kiihoitinta". Tässä lukemisen vaiheessa olen sitä itsekin, joten hyvin näyttää toimivan etänä.
Despite its mould line and design, the NGJ will require some minor modifications to be made to the EA-18G. PMA-234 is currently undertaking studies of conformal tanks that would allow a wider field of view, and improved fibre optic wiring to ensure its data path travels at lightning speed. “Use of conformal fuel tanks is the most extreme modification proposed. It could prove to be very costly, so the cost-benefit analysis is very important.
Suosittelen erityisesti 51-56 eli NGJ-osaa.
www.mainstream-engr.com
corporalfrisk.com
www.jstor.org
