ECM in DCS

[nickos86]

Hi ED, could you please elaborate a bit regarding how ECM is implemented in DCS? What is the difference in how its implemented on FC3 planes vs study modules (if there is). What does it actually "do" in the game and how its implemented? A dynamic multiplier for the radars probability of loosing track? It is a very interesting topic and it would be great to learn more about how it works in DCS.

Thanks.

[Mars Exulte]

10 hours ago, nickos86 said:

Hi ED, could you please elaborate a bit regarding how ECM is implemented in DCS? 

Short version : it's not

Medium version : it reduces the range radars lock on to you up to a point, after which the radar locks normally

Long version : Use search, and read any of the many threads discussing this to your heart's content. But as mentioned above, the implementation is very limited and not really related to how real world ECM works. FC3 or study is irrelevant, as there is no ''ECM'' simulation to speak of in the game, so the only difference is apt to be how many buttons you have to push before triggering the ''radar debuff''.

Edited December 28, 2021 by Mars Exulte

[QuiGon]

14 hours ago, nickos86 said:

Hi ED, could you please elaborate a bit regarding how ECM is implemented in DCS? What is the difference in how its implemented on FC3 planes vs study modules (if there is). What does it actually "do" in the game and how its implemented? A dynamic multiplier for the radars probability of loosing track? It is a very interesting topic and it would be great to learn more about how it works in DCS.

Thanks.

Currently ECM works like this:

On 6/15/2021 at 9:08 PM, QuiGon said:

Depends on what is being jammed. Jamming in DCS behaves completely different against AI than it does against other players.

Against the AI it reduces their launch range. I'm not entirely sure if it does lock-braking as well, but at least with the Hornet's jammer this seems to be the case.

Against other players, the jamming effect entirely depends on the recieving aircraft that needs to simulate jamming effects on its own systems. In the jamming aircraft the implementation of jamming is very simple. It's just a boolean that is either true (jammer on) or false (jammer off). This status gets transmitted over the network in Multiplayer and it's on the recieving side (the aircraft that gets jammed) to simulate jamming effects.

Most aircraft in DCS that have jamming effects implemented show some kind of noise jamming when being jammed (e.g. F-15, MiG-21, F/A-18). It denies range and IFF information.

Other aircraft show some other effects, like deception jamming that shows false contacts (M2000C). And some aircraft don't even show any jamming effects (yet) making them immune to jamming (F-14).

Having said this, it seems like ED wants to drastically change and enhance how jamming works in 2022. You can already see glimpses of this in the F-16 and F/A-18 who already can achieve some sortof lock breaking against AI units.

Edited December 28, 2021 by QuiGon

[Dragon1-1]

Do note that tactical aircraft jammers, like Gardenia or ALQ-184, are rather simple devices. They're designed for self-protection only, and in effect, FC3 isn't a bad representation of what they do, which is to reduce lock and launch ranges of enemy aircraft and SAMs, as well as try to trash missiles already in flight. They're also highly automated, sometimes you get presets for different radar types, but that's all. Generally, the pod does all the real work. You power it on, set whatever mode you want it to operate in, and the pod takes it from there. Aircraft designers tend to avoid making things much more complex than "flip this switch if someone's trying to kill you", because it's rather hard to fiddle with a full EW suite while dodging SAMs. One thing that FC3 doesn't simulate (but Viper and Hornet do, or at least will when the feature is complete) is own ship/own flight interference.

What would be interesting is if the ground component of ECM, which is far more complex, was implemented in the SAM sites, and if jammer aircraft support was made. We're extremely unlikely to get an actual EW aircraft as an FF module, but I'd be fine with a simplified, AI-flown implementation.

Edited December 28, 2021 by Dragon1-1

[Northstar98]

20 hours ago, nickos86 said:

Hi ED, could you please elaborate a bit regarding how ECM is implemented in DCS? What is the difference in how its implemented on FC3 planes vs study modules (if there is). What does it actually "do" in the game and how its implemented? A dynamic multiplier for the radars probability of loosing track? It is a very interesting topic and it would be great to learn more about how it works in DCS.

Thanks.

QuiGon's post pretty much nails it.

In DCS there are 2 types of electronic jamming simulated; noise jamming and track breaking (a form of deceptive jamming).

 

Noise jamming is the most common type of jamming in DCS and its primary effect in DCS is range denial.

Against the AI, all it does is reduce their launch range by some percentage.

Against player modules that facilitate noise jamming on their RADARs (F-5E, F-15CM, F-16, F/A-18C, JF-17(?), MiG-19P(?), MiG-21bis, MiG-29, Mirage 2000C, Su-27/33), you will see different presentations depending on the RADAR, but they all facilitate range denial.

The AJS 37, F-5E, F-15C (-ish), MiG-19P(?), MiG-21, MiG-29 and Su-27/33 all display a jamming strobe, which can be though of as essentially a continuous contact (or at least a large amount of them) spanning the instrumented range - effectively denying range. In the MiG-29s and Su-27/33 their TWS mode will also fall back to their RWS mode. The AJS 37 also does this against ships (DCS ships aren't implemented with jammers, though I think the Viggen appears to simulate some of them as if they did).

In the F-16CM, F/A-18C and Mirage 2000C, they'll display an angle-on-jam contact (in the F-16 these will be 2 yellow chevrons at the top of the display, in the F/A-18C it will be a contact in the AoJ dugout and in the Mirage 2000C, it's a load of asterisks). The outlier is the JF-17 which IIRC, displays a contact with ambiguous range (you'll see the track oscillate in range).

One thing to consider here is that DCS doesn't model sidelobes, so you only see whatever jamming effect at the azimuth of the jamming target, if it did have sidelobes, it might be possible to blank out a sector with noise, instead of just the azimuth of the jamming contact. It also doesn't model RADAR bands (every module can jam every RADAR.

When suitably close, the RADAR may 'burn through' the jamming, this is when the received power from the skin return > the received power of the signal from the jammer. In DCS I'm not sure if it's actually doing that calculation, or whether it's just at a pre-determined range.

 

The other technique DCS simulates (to some degree) is track breaking, though right now only the F-16CM and F/A-18C have jammers that can do this, but it only works against the AI. No module in DCS (apart from the Mirage 2000C) simulates the effects of track breaking (or any kind of deception jamming).

How track breaking works in DCS, is so long as you're further away than the burn-through range, there's a chance for these jammers to break the lock of the offending RADAR (unsure if it's probability or just after a random delay or something, nor do I know how different RADARs are being differentiated).

The only player module that features track breaking (I think) is the Mirage 2000C; whereby when the Mirage is in STT, if a target is jamming there's a chance to break the Mirage's lock and you'll see your track erroneously migrate in range across the display (this might just be range ambiguity from noise jamming though).

If you're after a basic rundown of actual track-breaking techniques, then I highly recommend this video (it also dives into multiple target repitition and communications jamming - neither of which is in DCS).

 

Some RADARs don't have any jamming effects simulated (such as the F-14), so jamming doesn't do anything and some modules (such as the F-14, JF-17(?) and Mirage 2000C) have their jammers simulated as noise jammers, but using DECM logic (i.e only actually transmit when a RADAR in a track/fire-control mode is detected).

 

With all that said, also note that DCS doesn't simulate any form of ECCM (and to be honest, it's probably going to be near impossible to do that, owing to the necessary information beyond basic techniques being unavailable), and jamming is only a simple boolean state, on or off.

Matt Wagner has however stated that electronic attack will be playing a bigger role in the new year (perhaps alluding to higher fidelity simulation of jamming and EW).

Edited December 28, 2021 by Northstar98