(During the Kosovo campaign the Americans were very keen on German EW Tornado aircrafts as they lacked EW equipment. According to GAO the US military has still not beefed up their EW capabilities. The GAO report is not bad, but it does not take into account other problems (operational procedures, ...) which also hinder mission success. WEN)
Electronic Warfare: Comprehensive Strategy Still Needed for Suppressing Enemy Air Defenses. GAO-03-51, November 25 http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-51 Highlights http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d0351high.pdf What GAO Recommends GAO continues to recommend that the Secretary of Defense develop a comprehensive, crossservice strategy to close the gap between DOD's suppression capabilities and needs. In addition, an effective coordinating entity is needed to develop and monitor implementation of the strategy. In answer to a draft of GAO's report, DOD concurred with its recommendations. Staff changes are being made to address crosscutting issues, and an integrated product team process established to form a comprehensive approach to the electronic warfare mission. **** ... In conducting military operations, U.S. aircraft are often at great risk from enemy air defenses, such as surface-to-air missiles. The services use specialized aircraft to neutralize, destroy, or temporarily degrade enemy air defense systems through either electronic warfare or physical attack. ... ... According to DOD, countries have sought to make their air defenses more resistant to suppression. ... ... However, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency, these aircraft were unable to destroy their integrated air defense system because Yugoslav forces often engaged in elaborate efforts to protect their air defense assets. ... ... Since our January 2001 report,5 the services have had some success in improving their suppression capabilities, but they have not reached a level needed to counter future threats. ... ... The Air Force recently upgraded the HARM Targeting System and is procuring additional systems. The upgrade (known as R-6) provides better and faster targeting information to the missile, but even with this pod the F-16CJ still lacks some of the capabilities of the retired F-4G. ... ... The services have already identified serious reliability problems with current self-protection systems on U.S. combat aircraft, including jammers, radar warning receivers, and countermeasures dispensers. Most of the current systems use older technology and have logistics support problems due to obsolescence. Also, as we reported last year,7 the selfprotection systems on strike aircraft may have more problems than the services estimate. ... ... The services have initiated additional research and development efforts to improve their ability to suppress enemy air defenses, but they face technology challenges and/or a lack of funding priority for many of these programs. ... ... The air defense suppression mission continues to be essential for maintaining air superiority. Over the past several years, however, the quantity and quality of the services' suppression equipment have declined while enemy air defense tactics and equipment have improved. DOD has recognized a gap exists in suppression capabilities but has made little progress in closing it. In our view, progress in improving capabilities has been hampered by the lack of a comprehensive strategy, cross-service coordination, and funding commitments that address the overall suppression needs. DOD relies on individual service programs to fill the void, but these programs have not historically received a high priority, resulting in the now existing capability gap. We continue to believe that a formal coordinating entity needs to be established to bring the services together to develop an integrated, cost-effective strategy for addressing overall joint air defense suppression needs. A strategy is needed to identify mission objectives and guide efforts to develop effective and integratedsolutions for improving suppression capabilities. ... Recommendations for Executive Action ... To close the gap between enemy air defense suppression needs and capabilities, we recommend that the Secretary of Defense establish a coordinating entity and joint comprehensive strategy to address the gaps that need to be filled in the enemy air defense suppression mission. The strategy should provide the means to identify and prioritize promising technologies, determine the funding, time frames, and responsibilities needed to develop and acquire systems, and establish evaluation mechanisms to track progress in achieving objectives. ... IWS INFOCON Mailing List @ IWS - The Information Warfare Site http://www.iwar.org.uk
