Defense Daily
May 22, 2002
Pg. 1

EC-130H Afghanistan Operations Highlight Need For Defensive Countermeasures

By Marc Strass

Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) has highlighted a need to provide defensive countermeasures to the Air Force’s fleet of Lockheed Martin [LMT] EC-130H Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft, according to service officials.

"The ground forces operated with extreme risk and that meant that we had to go into parts of the airspace that we normally wouldn’t go," Capt. Chris Kirschman, information warfare operations action officer at Air Combat Command, told reporters yesterday at a demonstration of an EC-130H at Andrews AFB, Md. "We had to expose ourselves to threats for the first time, loitering in range of Stinger missiles and at times taking fire from anti-aircraft artillery. Self protection definitely has been identified as a requirement for Compass Call."

Kirschman had previously served as an electronic warfare officer with the 41st Electronic Combat Squadron (ECS), home stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., and had served in OEF. The 41st sent two EC-130Hs to support allied forces operating in Afghanistan.

The EC-130H was originally designed as a standoff communications jamming platform, specifically tasked to interrupt communications links that were part of former Soviet integrated air defense systems (IADS). With the Soviet threat gone, the Compass Call fleet is expected to take on additional communications jamming missions in the future. Because the EC-130H was not originally planned to operate near hostile ant-aircraft weapons, the aircraft were not equipped with any sort of defensive countermeasure systems.

Given the threat of man-portable infrared (IR) guided missiles in Afghanistan, the top countermeasure priority for the EC-130H is an IR countermeasure (IRCM) system.

"IRCM is a very high priority," said Lt. Col. Bob Jackson, Compass Call program manager. "We are looking to put as much of Directed Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM) on these aircraft as we can such as the missile warning system and dispensers. Cost is an issue and we are trying to prioritize what they need."

For this reason, the Air Force is not currently planning to install the DIRCM’s jamming lamp or the future laser system on the Compass Call.

DIRCM, developed by Northrop Grumman [NOC], is planned for Air Force Special Operations aircraft like the MC-130 Combat Talon transport aircraft and AC-130 gunship. Northrop Grumman officials confirmed that they were in discussion with the Air Force about providing DIRCM for EC-130H aircraft.

In OEF, Compass Call aircraft operated closer to hostile air defense systems because, for the first time, they were used to specifically attack non-IADS based communications systems in direct support of ground forces (Defense Daily, April 15).

"There was no IADS in Afghanistan," Kirschman said. "What this meant is that Compass Call had to take the lead in all jamming in the theater, and really all that was left for us to do was to go after communications links."

In this regard, the EC-130Hs worked in conjunction with Navy EA-6B Prowlers, which made use of USQ-136 jammers by Britain’s BAE SYSTEMS to attack communications links. The Compass Call aircraft were able to designate communications targets for the EA-6B during OEF.

For OEF, attacks on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda communications networks were accomplished using the new Special Emitter Array (SPEAR) pod also developed by BAE. SPEAR is designed to attack a wider frequency set and more advanced signals than the EC-130H can currently attack, according to Mike Powell, BAE’s SPEAR development engineer.

SPEAR pods equipped both aircraft sent to the theater by the 41st ECS. There is currently only enough SPEAR equipment to equip three aircraft, Powell noted.

OEF was the first time the SPEAR system was deployed in service. The pods were not completely ready for deployment to the theater, and took some effort by the contractor to complete their construction before they were shipped to the theater of operations.

"[SPEAR] was not quite ready when it went. It was in the final stages of development, but it was not quite ready," Jackson said.

The Air Force plans to eventually equip its entire fleet of Compass Calls with the SPEAR pod, though such a plan is limited by funding. BAE is also working on a development program to extend the frequency spectrum of SPEAR and add additional jamming techniques.