electronic warfare self-protection of battlefield helicopters - Aaltodoc

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backup to the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), decided that an
integrated EWSP suite together with a new generation forward-looking infra-red
(FLIR) cameras had first priority for improving the Apache [Jan01]. 12 The four
Nordic countries that participated in the NSHP project all decided to outfit their
transport helicopters with an EWSP suite. The UK has equipped both its Apache
attack helicopters and Merlin transport helicopters with an indigenous EWSP suite.
The European NH-90 and Tiger helicopters are both offered with integrated EWSP
suites. A major obstacle, however, is the patchwork of European countries that lack a
joint approach to EWSP. Efforts by individual countries, e.g. in simulation, test and
validation, and mission data file generation are repeated by other countries, and there
are few indications of a systematic approach to EWSP of battlefield helicopters. The
attitude on defense issues has been changing in Europe; particularly after the NATOled
Kosovo operation in 1999 which highlighted European dependence on US
military assistance. 13
1.3 Objective of work
1.3.1 The problem and the need for a solution
The previous discussion indicates that a main concern of the EW community is the
low propensity of decision-makers to invest in EWSP, and when investments are
made they are made in a haphazard way, without real appreciation for conditions that
would make EWSP an efficient contributor to platform survivability. On the other
hand, the discussion also reveals that the EW community has problems in
communicating its message to other interest groups and in understanding the position
of other stakeholders in helicopter survivability. As a first cornerstone for the present
work the following claims are made:
Claims:
1) There exists today no treatise on EWSP and its relation to
battlefield helicopter survivability in general.
2) The tools that exist today for communicating issues of EWSP
with disparate stakeholders are insufficient.
It should be noted that the claims refer to the unclassified and freely available body
of scientific information. The discussion in Sections 1.4.1 and 1.4.2 indicates that
some classified work has been done within this field, and it must also be assumed
that various EW and combat simulation facilities take a holistic view on
survivability.
12 Despite this, it is obvious that only the Dutch decision to deploy the Apaches to Afghanistan
trigged a crash-program for outfitting the helicopters with an EWSP suite [Jan04a, Jan04b, Fis04a].
13 The weakness of Europe is expressed in the following statement: “Kosovo underlined the bad
news. First, we lack sufficient strategic and tactical intelligence assets (….) Second, we lack sufficient
strategic and tactical sea and air lift (….) Third, we lack enough hi-tech weapons (….) In effect,
without the US today we cannot see very far, we cannot go very far, and when there, we cannot do
very much and we are unlikely to be able to stay very long if we are not welcome” [Lin00].