Maximising the benefits of sophisticated electronic countermeasures systems

As electronic countermeasure systems become more complex, the time taken between the equipment being specified, designed, developed and eventually fielded has lengthened significantly. During this development, advances in radar processing are likely to change the requirements for countermeasure waveforms, and the original specification from which the system was designed may no longer be appropriate. The hardware within modern countermeasure systems is designed in a flexible manner that will support the generation of waveforms not explicitly defined during the specification process. However, the functionality of this hardware is constrained by the inflexible nature of the support tools that prevent novel waveforms from being defined within the system. This paper provides background to the evolution of countermeasure systems and their support tools, and continues to discuss more flexible approaches to the definition of countermeasure waveforms such that maximum benefit can be gained from modern technology in an ever-changing environment.