CHAPTER 1 - MISSION PLANNING Flashcards
What is the default planning time?
Brief time minus 2 hours
What is the KC-130 mission?
Support the MAGTF commander by providing air-to-air refueling, assault support, and close air support, day or night under all weather conditions during expeditionary, joint, or combined operations
What are some threat factors?
- mobility of the system
- guidance type
- range of the weapon
- range of the acquisition radar
- command and control
- day vs night operations
- number of missiles and rate of fire
- weather limitations
- weapon terminal guidance
- weapon fusing & fragmentation pattern
What altitude and type of terrain should you plan the flight in mission planning?
Highest altitude that still denies detection
Selected high, rugged, and vegetated terrain
Rough terrain decreases threat mobility, heavy vegetation restricts field of fire, low altitude enhances terrain masking
What are the 3 significant radar threat vulnerabilities that should be exploited in mission planning?
Limits on maximum range
Degraded low-level detection capabilities because of earths curvature (radar horizon)
Masking properties of obstructions between the antenna and the target aircraft
EMCON 1
Any and all emitters are authorized
EMCON 2
All emitter are authorized. Essential radio transmissions for flight safety may be made.
EMCON 3
Radio silent. The use of other emitters is authorized unless prohibited by supported operations or plan
EMCON 4
No emitters will be used unless specifically authorized by the supported plan (ATO, ROE, operations plan, safe passage procedures, or other mission directive)
What does a bullseye do?
Provides a method of passing information between aircrews, other aircraft, and command and control assets in a clear, concise and secure manner.
Is a specified point on the ground and is given a name
What are the two types of bullseyes?
Mission employment bullseye - employed for threat reference
SARDOT bullseye - an isolated person uses to identify his location in the battle space
What is Detection-Free Altitude (DFA)?
highest altitude a/c can transit a point and remain below the radar’s coverage
What are the 3 major subdivisions in Electronic Warfare (EW)?
EA - electronic attack
EP - electronic protection
ES - electronic support
Define Electronic Attack (EA)
focuses on the use of EM or directed energy to attack personnel, facilities, or equipment with the intent of degrading, neutralizing, or destroying enemy combat capabilities
What is defensive EA? Offensive EA?
Defensive - electronic jamming in response to an attack, which is unplanned but meant to disrupt enemy capabilities
Offensive - planned and electronic jamming designed to disrupt enemy capes
Define Electronic Protection (EP)
action taken to protect personnel, facilities, or equipment from any effects of friendly or enemy employment of EW
What is the most common form of EA countermeasure?
IADS (integrated air defense system)
using multiple freqs and radars to minimize EAs effectiveness
Define Electronic Support (ES)
focuses on surveillance of EMS that directly supports an operational commander’s EM information that in turn supports immediate decision-making
What does stand-off jamming do?
saturates the ground radar with noise and masks the presence and location of an actual strike force
What are the 2 types of radars that the ANTTP discuss?
Direct Threat
Indirect Threat
Describe Direct Threat Radars
What 2 types are they divided into?
- supply information directly to weapon systems capable of engaging/destroying a/c
- operate at higher frequencies
Active Threat & Passive Threat
Describe Active Threat Radars
involved acquiring, locking-on, and tracking the target
signal characteristics and narrow beam width of most direct threat radars are ideal for precision tracking applications
Describe Passive Threat Radars
using receive-only modes, TTR can passively track a/c radar emissions and obtain azimuth and elevation data
significant threat bc it is virtually impossible to detect
What are the 2 categories of passive threat radars?
- systems that require a/c emissions (eg. RAMONA)
2. systems that use disturbances to the energy in the ambient EM environment to track a/c
Describe Indirect Threat Radars
- may not be an immediate threat but are important since they alert the IADS to a/c’s presence
- may be used to vector airborne interceptors or as a queuing source for SAM and ADA systems
What are 3 types of indirect threat radars?
EW - early warning
HF - height finder
ACQ - acquisition
Describe EW radars
- high-powered, long-range
- main purpose is early detection
- provide approx. range, azimuth, elevation for IADS
- may extend to 300 NM
- generally use a 360 degree scan and operate at lower freqs
Describe HF radars
- provide target altitude
- most receive azimuth data from EW radars and then conduct a vertical scan along that azimuth
Describe ACQ radars
- dedicated to specific weapon systems such as ADA or SAM
- similar in function to EW, providing range & azimuth to ground weapon system
- range & azimuth resolution better and scan faster than EW
- provides more accurate target position
- detection range much smaller than EW
- operate at or above EW radar freqs but below most direct threat radar freqs
What consists of a Ground-Controlled Intercept (GCI) site
an HF radar may be combined with an EW radar
What does an GCI site do?
relays target information to airborne interceptors
What is radar resolution?
measurement of the radar’s ability to separate targets that are close together in range, azimuth, or elevation into individual returns
Does radar resolution get poorer with a wider or narrower beam width?
wider
Are emissions worse in radar dead zones or radar coverage zones?
radar dead zones
they may be refracted and reflected off the surface of the earth or layers of atmosphere, hostile ES systems may detect them even though a/c remains terrain masked
What is MIJI?
Which are deliberate?
Meaconing, Intrusion, Jamming - deliberate
Interference - unintentional
What is meaconing?
system of receiving radio beacon signals from NAVAIDs and rebroadcasting them on the same frequency to confuse navigation
enemy conducts meaconing ops to prevent a/c from arriving at their intended targets/destinations
What is intrusion?
intentionally inserting EM energy into transmission paths in any manner
occurs when enemy inserts false information into our receiver paths
What is jamming/spoofing?
deliberately radiating, re-radiating, or reflecting EM energy to impair the use of electronic devices, equipment, or systems
What is interference?
unintentional disruption of use of radios, radars, NAVAIDs, etc
civilian broadcast may interfere w/ military comms
What should the mission statement be based on?
the objective
Urgent precedence is used for what only?
CASEVAC
What is L-Hour?
H-Hour?
L-Hour = landing hour for an assault H-Hour = commencement of hostilities, crossing the line of departure
What is chattermark?
the alternate frequency roll plan if the primary frequency is unusable due to inference
What is bead window?
the passing of sensitive information over an open frequency
