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The potential use of high power directed energy (DE) weapons or electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) weapons in future EA missions argues for the use of an unmanned platform, since the weapon may pose a significant risk to the crew of any delivery vehicle.
The use of unmanned systems in the EA mission also brings several challenges:
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When using EA to neutralize defenses in support of manned strike forces it will be critical for the SEAD UA to be within sufficient range to be effective. A trade-off between EA effectiveness and survivability needs to be fully understood in a systems engineering trade.
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An UA is more dependent upon outside communications than manned systems. Self-jamming (interference with command and control communications by electronic attack emissions) could limit the ability to change the unmanned system’s planned mission once the electronic attack has begun.
. The potential for self-jamming and increased vulnerability due to a dependence upon communications mean a great degree of autonomy will be required in the unmanned EA system.
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A manned EA aircraft provides the ability for a trained crew to evaluate large amounts of tactical data on the threat environment and to change the mission plan as required for strike support. The appearance of previously unknown threat defensive system modes, frequencies, or tactics may only be detected by the human operator’s ability to recognize patterns in the context of previous experience – a very difficult, and as yet undeveloped, ability for autonomous systems.
. Without the development of autonomous EA operating capability, the transmission of large amounts of data, describing the tactical environment, must be provided to remote human operators in real time. These large transmissions would be limited by available bandwidth and self-jamming and could increase the unmanned system’s vulnerability.
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A signature-controlled vehicle loses the advantage of stealth when radiating. “Home On Jam” threat systems could put the unmanned EA aircraft at risk.
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Execution of the Electronic Attack mission implies several critical design criteria and questions for the unmanned platform and mission control system:
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Mission reliability must be extremely high, as manned assets will depend upon the UA for protection.
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