Radar from the 60s

Red wrote:

"WDA" wrote in message
. net...
SNIP SNIP SNIP SNIP
Meanwhile the USAF was putting the ALQ-76 "jamming pods on their F-4s.
"Protection" by that pod required their a/c to fly in rigid parade
formation
to counter the Fansong radar. But if just one of the pod equipped planes
slid out of formation it was immediately tracked and nailed by Guidline
missiles. That was because the damned pods were actually beacons instead
of
jammers!
WDA
VF-24, VA-192, 1955 - 1959

Ah Hah! Flying the infamous SAM box with the ALQ-76. (The ALQ-76's were
amplifying beacons). The theory was to keep a 800-1000 feet between
aircraft. The signal return (+amplification) would look like one aircraft
and the SAM would guide to the center of the blip. Therefore the SAM will
detonate between the aircraft missing each by 400-500 feet.

Would you trust this device?

Allow me to point out that the Air Force fighters used the ALQ-71 (nee'
QRC-160-1) and later the ALQ-87 (nee' QRC-160-8) noise jammers, not the
ALQ-76. And the USN suffered greater percentage losses to SAMs in Vietnam
than the USAF did, despite all the navy a/c being equipped with the ALQ-51.
Both types of jammers had their advantages and disadvantages; the USAF began
using the ALQ-101 (nee' QRC-335) combined noise/deception jammer from 1968, on
those a/c that by nature of their missions (MiGCAP, Wild Weasel) had to fly
more independently.

With regard to Bill Allen's statement that the Air Force pods were "actually
beacons instead of jammers," that's rather subject to fine print. Certainly
by 1972 the VPAF/ADF SAM crews were sometimes operating in a "jamming strobe"
mode, decreasing the gain to use the jamming strobe for direction/elevation,
and a separate radar (often in another band) to provide range data. But AFAIK
they never had the capability to use a true home-on-jam capability; the SA-2
was command guided (unlike the Sparrow), so how could they? The USAF noise
jamming pods were also modified to jam the missile beacons (transponders)
starting around the end of 1967, which proved extremely effective until the
VPAF/ADF (actually, their Soviet advisers) made some changes to the
transponders to make this type of jamming more difficult. This took effect no
later than 1972, and possibly a bit earlier (I'd have to check a few sources).

Guy