L11 Pre-flight

L11 Pre-flight#

Block 2: RF Electronic Warfare — Lesson 11: From Radar to EW Work this before L11. Pre-flights are never collected — in class, anyone may be cold-called to present any question at the board, and that recitation is the participation grade.

Assumed pre-class reading#

  • L10 wrap-up (Project 1 results and Block 1 synthesis)

  • The Jupyter Book Reading page for L11 — the goal of EW, the ES/EP/EA pillars, one-way vs two-way propagation, and the radar-vs-EW innovation cycle.

Quiz questions (5 items, ~5 minutes)#

Q1. (Multiple choice) The goal of electromagnetic warfare is best stated as:

  • [ ] (a) Destroying enemy radars and air-defense nodes with directed-energy weapons

  • [ ] (b) Controlling the spectrum for our own use while denying the enemy’s

  • [ ] (c) Encrypting our communications so the enemy cannot read them

  • [ ] (d) Replacing kinetic weapons with electronic ones wherever possible

Q2. (Multiple choice) A B-21’s radar warning receiver passively detects and identifies a SAM site’s tracking radar. This is an example of:

  • [ ] (a) Electromagnetic Attack

  • [ ] (b) Electromagnetic Protect

  • [ ] (c) Electromagnetic Support

  • [ ] (d) Electromagnetic Hardening

Q3. (Multiple choice) A radar’s return from a target falls off as \(1/R^4\), while an RWR’s intercept of that same radar falls off as \(1/R^2\). The consequence is:

  • [ ] (a) The radar always detects the aircraft before the RWR detects the radar

  • [ ] (b) The RWR hears the radar well before that radar can see the aircraft

  • [ ] (c) Both detections happen at about the same range, since one transmitter feeds both

  • [ ] (d) Which one detects first is set by antenna gain alone

Q4. (Short answer) In one sentence, what unavoidable vulnerability does every radar accept the moment it turns on, and which EW pillar exploits it?

Q5. (Multiple choice) Which of the following is an example of Electromagnetic Protect?

  • [ ] (a) A frequency-hopping LPI waveform on our own search radar

  • [ ] (b) A stand-off jammer raising the noise floor of an acquisition radar

  • [ ] (c) An ELINT aircraft cataloging a new emitter’s pulse parameters

  • [ ] (d) A DRFM injecting false targets into a tracking radar

Contents