Zephyr Net

Hey does anyone know why they don't use the LAU-138 on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet? They bumped up the internal load to 60/60 on the chaff and flare. The LAU-138 fits right in with the LAU-127, 128, 129, and 7 with 160 bundles of chaff. At the same time, it doesn't reduce the weapons load so an AIM-9 or AIM-120 can still be carried.

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Centurian

I have not heard, except s statement by the USN that precut chaff is bcoming less and less important in defeating SAMs as they move to standoff positions as their main emphasis on strike...

recently they have been using UAVs to drop walls of chaff and then bounce jamming off of it.

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.

If they take chaff out of A/C it'll be like taking the gun out of A/C in Vietnam.

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Centurian

Not really Cent.... Chaff is becoming less and less effective... Chaff can not brake locks on phased array radars like the Patriot or Aegis, or what the Russians and Chinese use in the SA-10, SA-12s, and SA-17s... Also it is ineffective against AMRAAM type missiles like the MICA or R-77 as those radars operate on much shorter wavelengths and the chaff will not blind them. Missiles also now have ECCM throughout and they compare the releative speeds of the decoys that chaff creates and the chaff clouds dimish speed quicly and are thus recognized and rejects...

The future is the towed decoy and high band ECM Jamming that is transparent to the jamming aircraft and doest point to it so its Stealth will not be comromised. The jamming signal is bounced off the ionsphere like OTH radar is today... Plus full on satellite guidance for even air to air weapons...

Radar as the principle defensive sensor and weaons guidance is limited at best in the near future...

There are still a lot of SA-2, SA-3, SA-6, and SA-8 systems out there...

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Centurian

SA-8s are un effected by chaff Cent... The best and only defense is to stay out of their engaement envelope...

SA-2s,3s, and 6s are more effected by the towed decoy then the 0s or 12s are and it just makes no sense to rely on the mostly ineffective chaff when you have a 100% proven track record with the towed decoy... No aircraft carrying a decoy has ever been downed by a SAM... You simply can not say that about chaff...

Chaff is WWII technology and its days are numbered... The best thing left for chaff is to make chaff coordors for aircraft to traverse to cause problems for surveilance radars. And UAVs are better suited to this work so as to not ris a pilot and make it much more difficult for the defenses to locate and kill the chaff 'seed' aircraft...