Page 54 - Australian Defence Magazine February 2022

54 ELECTRONIC WARFARE
FEBRUARY 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
possible candidate to use the range, while the lack of any similar EW ranges on this side of Indo-Pacific means Austra- lia can potentially offer use of the range to forward deployed US military assets or those of friendly partner nations.
LAND AND MARITIME DOMAINS
Australia is also moving forward in the land and maritime EW domains. JP500 Phase 2A (Electronic Warfare Operations Support for Maritime and Land Forces) will provide electron- ic warfare equipment and infrastructure, significantly sharp- ening the ability of naval ships and army units to deal with threats emerging across the electronic warfare spectrum.
Support systems are expected to be delivered and op- erational by 2023, while a facility within the Edinburgh Defence precinct in SA housing laboratories, simulation
ships, although these are less often seen in recent times. It also has a fleet of smaller ships for the purpose, and these have been used extensively to gather intelligence in waters closer to home, including what Taiwan says is a
near-constant presence of such vessels off its coast.
This is in addition to China’s increasingly numerous long range special mission aircraft flown by both the PLAN and the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). These include airborne early warning, ISR, airborne command posts, stand-off jammers and maritime patrol/anti-subma-
rine aircraft.
These are mainly based on the Shaanxi Y-8 and Y-9 tur-
boprop, which have also been active in the international airspace around Taiwan. These have mainly taken the form of the KQ-200 anti-submarine aircraft which is roughly analogous to the P-3 and are believed to have an onboard Electronic Support Measures and SIGINT suite.
China has also sent the KJ-500 Airborne Early Warning aircraft and Y-9JB dedicated SIGINT aircraft near Taiwan. The latter also make regular runs up and down the Tsushi- ma Strait between Japan and the Korean peninsula, trigger- ing scrambles by Japanese and South Korean interceptors.
The PLAAF is also introducing the Shenyang J-16D Elec- tronic Attack aircraft. Based on the J-16 multi-role combat jet which is itself based on the Russian Sukhoi Su-30MKK/ MK2 Flanker operated by the PLAAF and PLAN, the J-16D is a contemporary of the Growler operated by the US Navy and RAAF.
An example, which based on the serial number is the ninth production J-16D, was on the static display at the Zhu- hai Airshow in November 2021, featuring a number of detail changes from the standard J-16 including a pair of wingtip pods believed to perform a similar function to the AN/ALQ- 218 passive Electronic Intelligence/Electronic Support Measures (ELINT/ESM) system carried on the Growler.
The J-16D at Zhuhai also carried four large external pods under its engine intakes and wings in at least three slightly different configurations. No details about the pods have been released, although these are believed to be des- ignated as the RZK-930 and cover different bands similar to the Next Generation Jammer pods being developed for the Growler. ■
“IN ADDITION TO US EW ASSETS RESIDING WITHIN THE INDO-PACIFIC COMMAND, THE RELATIVELY ADVANCED MILITARIES OF JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA MEANS BOTH HAVE ADVANCED EW CAPABILITIES”
equipment and test systems to support deploying navy and army units has been opened even as Defence reviews poten- tial follow-on phases of JP500.
The Army has introduced pack and vehicle mounted EW systems, the latter mounted on Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles, and in September 2021 it was announced that Defence has sought expressions of inter- est to support the research and development of next-generation
maritime-based electronic warfare capabilities, with a par- ticular focus on supporting Australian SMEs and the R&D sector for the RAN’s future fleet.
THE ADVERSARY
They will be up against potential regional adversaries that already have significant capabilities in EW and are push- ing forward with developments in that space. The massive military modernisation program undertaken by China over the past two decades has also seen vast improvements in its EW capabilities and includes airborne stand-off jammers, its own Growler counterpart and a fleet of intelligence gathering ships.
The latter are a fleet of nine Type 815 (Dong- diao-class) ships that have been active through- out the Indo-Pacific, including coming to waters off Australia to observe the Talisman Sabre Aus- tralia-US military exercises.
These have an extensive array of sensors, including long range radars and SIGINT equipment for detecting, collecting and clas- sifying electronic signals. The People’s Lib- eration Army Navy (PLAN) also operates several classes of older intelligence-gathering
RIGHT: The Army has modified a number of Bushmaster vehicles converted for EW operations. A standard Bushmaster is pictured being loaded into an RAAF C-17A in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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