When to use Radar Jamming?

I have a couple questions about jamming and ECM:

What does radar jamming actually do?

When should you use it?

I'm no expert on the topic, nor do I know if this is how all jammers work but from what I've gathered:

It sends the same frequency of the radar back at it. This results in random returns, some genuine and some from the jammer. In turn the radar will not be able to get an accurate range... only bearing.

You will have the most success at a distance, as most radars will "burn" through the jammer the closer it gets. Also beware of "home on jam" as some systems are smart enough to use your jammer signal to detect where you are.

IRL radars change frequencies to combat this, however, I'm pretty sure the jammer can switch to accommodate so it's really a cat and mouse game.

In game this is useful when someone has range on you. Can prevent them from locking you up until your a bit closer. Not a guarantee though.

Again, I'm no expert on this topic, but I think thats about it...for DCS purposes anyway.

^

it turns a range/bearing/alt contact into bearing only at ranges above burnthrough

at and under burnthrough it does effectively nothing except attract home-on-jam weapons.

for the most part, jammers are useless in DCS as missile ranges are so low that at burnthrough you will simply always be out of range, and thus the jammer is of no practical use as it will never be able to depress the enemy's ability to launch at you.

(if kinetic range > burnthrough range then he will have to wait until burnthrough to shoot you) it may be of some very marginal use against very long range SAMs like the SA-10- though nothing practical at this time as the only jammer carrying platforms have no business being anywhere near in range of an SA-10 above 500 ft (where the jammer does effectively nothing as the curvature of the earth already depresses it's range)

most DCS players barely bother carrying them (unless they are built in like F-15C) as they are just a paperweight for the most part.

That’s a big can of classified worms you’re asking to open

nah. it only gets classified when you start asking pointed questions about specific, in-service systems and what algorithms/waveforms/whatever they are using.

the existence and general theory of jamming has been public knowledge for decades.

besides, nobody needs to know anything about the deeper mechanics of jamming to just describe how it works in DCS.

The only thing the jammer will do in DCS is to deny russian fighters to use TWS if there is just a single jammer on the scope. Which means that ppl in russian hardware have to work a little harder to keep track of you without going STT.

Other than that it just denies range info outside 25NM headon and 10NM tailon.

If you wanna know more about the principles of jamming, a pair of nice, informative videos

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