The AN/ASQ-213[1]HARM targeting system (HTS) is a targeting pod mounted to either of the engine inlet hardpoints of an F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft. It enables the aircraft to track the location of hostile radar systems in any weather, and identify them to allow for usage of the AGM-88 HARM missile or other air-to-ground weapons.[2] It greatly assists in Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) and Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses (DEAD) operations, where surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites are directly attacked or threatened, and therefore suppressed, by aircraft carrying anti-radar missiles and other munitions. While the firing of anti-radar missiles (AGM-88 HARM) in Harm As Sensor (HAS) mode, an HTS pod greatly reduces the workload of the pilot, increases the precision of the HARM, and allows HARMs to be fired while pointed away from the SAM site being attacked when in Equation of Motion (EOM) mode.[3]
As an aircraft maneuvers closer to a SAM site and is scanned by the radar for longer periods, the quality of the HTS pod's report of the location of the SAM site increases. This is represented by the PGM (Position Quality) number.[citation needed] A single F-16 is capable of attaining a PGM5 track, the lowest quality track, up to PGM2. When combined with the F-16's Link 16 datalink system, a team of aircraft is capable of triangulating the position of SAM systems with a high degree of accuracy, allowing for the highest quality track, PGM1.[3]
In combat, the pod displays the range, bearing, and type of threats to the aircraft in relation to itself. During flight, the pilot may adjust the area scanned by the pod as well as the frequencies scanned to optimize threat detection and ranging.[citation needed]
Development
After the deactivation of the successful EF-4C Wild Weasel IV, the contract for the creation of the HTS pod was awarded to Texas Instruments (The defense business of which was sold to Raytheon in 1997 for $2.95 Billion USD).
After the successes of the original design of the HTS pod, future upgraded variants featured vastly improved ranging speed and improved threat identification, as well as improving the frequency covered and the number of targets which could be tracked at once.[4]
The AGM-88 HARM is a tactical, air-to-surface anti-radiation missile designed to home in on electronic transmissions coming from surface-to-air radar systems. It was originally developed by Texas Instruments as a replacement for the AGM-45 Shrike and AGM-78 Standard ARM system. Production was later taken over by Raytheon Corporation when it purchased the defense production business of Texas Instruments.
The AGM-65 Maverick is an air-to-ground missile (AGM) designed for close air support. It is the most widely produced precision-guided missile in the Western world, and is effective against a wide range of tactical targets, including armor, air defenses, ships, ground transportation and fuel storage facilities.
The Raytheon Company was a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. Founded in 1922, it merged in 2020 with United Technologies Corporation to form Raytheon Technologies, which changed its name to RTX Corporation in July 2023.
Raytheon Missiles & Defense (RMD) was one of four business segments of RTX Corporation. Headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, its president was Wes Kremer. The business produced a broad portfolio of advanced technologies, including air and missile defense systems, precision weapons, radars, and command and control systems. Raytheon Intelligence & Space was merged with Raytheon Missiles & Defense in July 2023 to form the Raytheon business segment.
The Grumman A-6 Intruder is an American twinjet all-weather attack aircraft developed and manufactured by American aircraft company Grumman Aerospace and formerly operated by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps.
The McDonnell DouglasF-15E Strike Eagle is an American all-weather multirole strike fighter derived from the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. The F-15E was designed in the 1980s for long-range, high-speed interdiction without relying on escort or electronic-warfare aircraft. United States Air Force (USAF) F-15E Strike Eagles can be generally distinguished from other US Eagle variants by darker aircraft camouflage, conformal fuel tanks (CFTs) mounted along the engine intake ramps and a tandem-seat cockpit.
Wild Weasel is a code name given by the United States Air Force (USAF) to an aircraft of any type equipped with anti-radiation missiles and tasked with the suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD): destroying the radar and surface-to-air missile (SAM) installations of enemy air defense systems. The task of a Wild Weasel aircraft is to bait enemy anti-aircraft defenses into targeting it with their radars, whereupon the radar waves are traced back to their source, allowing the Weasel or its teammates to precisely target it for destruction.
Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD, pronounced ), also known in the United States as "Wild Weasel" and (initially) "Iron Hand" operations, are military actions to suppress enemy surface-based air defenses, including not only surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) but also interrelated systems such as early-warning radar and command, control and communication (C3) functions, while also marking other targets to be destroyed by an air strike. Suppression can be accomplished both by physically destroying the systems or by disrupting and deceiving them through electronic warfare. In modern warfare, SEAD missions can constitute as much as 30% of all sorties launched in the first week of combat and continue at a reduced rate through the rest of a campaign. One quarter of American combat sorties in recent conflicts have been SEAD missions. Despite generally being associated with aircraft, SEAD missions may be performed using any means, including through actions by ground forces.
The Boeing EA-18G Growler is an American carrier-based electronic warfare aircraft, a specialized version of the two-seat Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet. The EA-18G replaced the Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowlers in service with the United States Navy. The Growler's electronic warfare capability is primarily provided by Northrop Grumman. The EA-18G began production in 2007 and entered operational service with the US Navy in late 2009. Australia has also purchased thirteen EA-18Gs, which entered service with the Royal Australian Air Force in 2017.
An active electronically scanned array (AESA) is a type of phased array antenna, which is a computer-controlled antenna array in which the beam of radio waves can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving the antenna. In the AESA, each antenna element is connected to a small solid-state transmit/receive module (TRM) under the control of a computer, which performs the functions of a transmitter and/or receiver for the antenna. This contrasts with a passive electronically scanned array (PESA), in which all the antenna elements are connected to a single transmitter and/or receiver through phase shifters under the control of the computer. AESA's main use is in radar, and these are known as active phased array radar (APAR).
An anti-radiation missile (ARM) is a missile designed to detect and home in on an enemy radio emission source. Typically, these are designed for use against an enemy radar, although jammers and even radios used for communications can also be targeted in this manner.
Radar warning receiver (RWR) systems detect the radio emissions of radar systems. Their primary purpose is to issue a warning when a radar signal that might be a threat is detected, like a fighter aircraft's fire control radar. The warning can then be used, manually or automatically, to evade the detected threat. RWR systems can be installed in all kind of airborne, sea-based, and ground-based assets such as aircraft, ships, automobiles, military bases.
The 2K12 "Kub" mobile surface-to-air missile system is a Soviet low to medium-level air defence system designed to protect ground forces from air attack. 2К12 is the GRAU designation of the system.
Active radar homing (ARH) is a missile guidance method in which a missile contains a radar transceiver and the electronics necessary for it to find and track its target autonomously.
AGM-45 Shrike is an American anti-radiation missile designed to home in on hostile anti-aircraft radar. The Shrike was developed by the Naval Weapons Center at China Lake in 1963 by mating a seeker head to the rocket body of an AIM-7 Sparrow. It was phased out by U.S. in 1992 and at an unknown time by the Israeli Air Force, and has been superseded by the AGM-88 HARM missile. The Israel Defense Forces developed a version of the Shrike that could be ground-launched with a booster rocket, and mounted it on an M4 Sherman chassis as the Kilshon.
The Raytheon MIM-23 HAWK is an American medium-range surface-to-air missile. It was designed to be a much more mobile counterpart to the MIM-14 Nike Hercules, trading off range and altitude capability for a much smaller size and weight. Its low-level performance was greatly improved over Nike through the adoption of new radars and a continuous wave semi-active radar homing guidance system. It entered service with the US Army in 1959.
The AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel is an X-band electronically steered pulse-Doppler 3D radar system used to alert and cue Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD) weapons to the locations of hostile targets approaching their front line forces. It is currently produced by Raytheon Missiles & Defense.
The AGM-176 Griffin is a lightweight, precision-guided munition developed by Raytheon. It can be launched from the ground or air as a rocket-powered missile or dropped from the air as a guided bomb. It carries a relatively small warhead, and was designed to be a precision low-collateral damage weapon for irregular warfare. It has been used in combat by the United States military during the War in Afghanistan.
Operation Iron Hand was a joint United States Air Force (USAF) and United States Navy (USN) operation conducted from 1965 to 1973 during the Vietnam War. It was a type of Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) mission, primarily intended to suppress Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems in North Vietnam, although neutralizing radar-directed anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) was important as well. "Iron Hand" refers both to the development of the tactics and equipment, and the numerous individual "Iron Hand missions" that generally accompanied strike packages of the USAF and USN. The "Iron Hand" is a metaphor to the steady hand and nerves of steel it took for pilots to fly directly at the radar-emitting anti-aircraft missile sites while the radar-seeking missiles flew down to destroy the target. The tactics employed on the Iron Hand missions were primarily designed to diminish the threat of SA-2 missiles to a bombing strike force.
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