Full Jamming & Radar Tutorial | VTOL VR FA-26b

1.8 is here! Here is a quick, but in-depth explanation for the new jamming module and the changes to the radar. This applies to the F/A-26b and the T-55, since jamming with the F-45A is as easy as clicking on a radar signature in the TSD and tapping the jam button. The EF-24 jammer and radar will behave differently and have more functionality in some aspects so expect another video on it when it's released.

If I missed anything, or you know more about something than I do, leave a comment!

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0:00 Intro
0:08 Radar
1:16 Radar Options
3:27 Soft-Lock Change
4:27 Jamming
4:51 Bands
5:52 ARAD Jamming
7:57 TGP Jamming
8:39 GPS Jamming
9:21 Auto-Retargeting
9:47 Radar While Jamming
10:03 When YOU Get Jammed
10:58 Outro

[darkstar]

Notes & Slew Radar Elaboration:
1. Your radar is broadcasting in a cone that expands as it gets farther away from you, meaning that it can scan a wider altitude range the farther away the signal gets.
Moving the cursor with the right thumb stick does not change the altitude range that you scan, though it looks like it. The left thumb stick is what changes the scanning altitude. Moving the cursor around simply changes the altitude values to help you understand the radar cone and the altitudes you can scan at different parts of the cone.

2. AWACS radar and EW radar are also both low band.

[seebarry]

Buddy, you cleared up so much for me, and you didn’t waste my time doing it. Mucho gracias. 🙏 🛩️

[dankmemewalker]

when Is the update arriving?

also is that like a public beta or just for the higher ups? If it is public how do I access it.

[Automan]

Sublime, will help tremendously not be overwhelmed when the update hits, thanks. EW is gonna change so much about the game, excited !

[kronklybutcooler]

To add onto the jamming section: the reason you could maintain a hard lock was that the jamming type was set to noise. This just adds false radar return blips, being the boxes, to simply blind your radar basically.
To throw off a hard lock (STT/Single Target Tracking) you need to use DRFM, which will, when targeting the enemy who’s hard locked you, mess with their radar enough to throw off the radar lock.
It’s all detailed in the EF-24G’s manual, in the third section.

[kingevandoesstuff]

This is gonna be watched so many times in the news few months. This is a super good tutorial, probably the best I've seen for vtol. Keep it up!

[HarilIshai]

Thanks for this. I was surprised how opaque the new mechanics are in game, so it's nice having it all spelled out.

[Brokenrocktail]

Your description of slow mode isn’t exactly correct. When you move the cursor around the screen, it’s not actually changing anything it’s displaying the maximum and minimum altitude at that distance from your aircraft that you can detect contacts when you use the left stick in order to slew up and down you’re actually moving the radar scan assembly up and down. Essentially the use of this mode would be to get a higher hit rate on a target, but without having to switch to a smaller, scan angle, essentially instead of processing the four vertical scan rows, you are eliminating that and only doing a single horizontal scan with a certain radar elevation

[Mustangs-btpu]

I need to confirm but I'm pretty sure you got a mistake inyour description of the radar altitudes coming off the cursor at the ~3min mark and some mistakes about ranging. In real jets as the cursor moves around those numbers are what altitude can be seen at that range.
Think of it this way, the radar beam is a cone of energy that sweeps the sky. Imagine the side profile of that cone, and pick say the 5 mile mark, the cone is smaller, at that range you might only see a fe thousand feet above and bellow your jet. Now look 20 miles out, and you can see 20 thousand feet up or down. The cursor is only telling you what the radar can see at that range, not actually changing the beam shape.
Also, range up and down doesnt limit the energy, it just zooms the screen in. As far as I know we can't actually control the energy amount. I beleive this update give some sort of option like that to the F-45.

[paristo]

Small corrections:

1) A is for Altitude, not for Angels. That is from BRAA call, Bearing, Range, Altitude, Aspect.

2) The B-scope maximize the separation of targets, but it is still based from the conical scan and does distort the radar scope further the contact is from centerline and closer it is to own plane. It is best to have scanning in default "sector PPI" that give best idea of range, angle and position. Especially if the Sector PPI can be overlaid on Map, when it is very clear what you see and don't see horizontally.

3) Slew mode is about seeing the scan volume values, not the bars value and scanned bars level. As you select scanning volume by selecting how many layers the radar sweeps vertically, you change time it takes to update the radar picture as it is updated only when all bars is scanned.
But bars do not inform you what volume you are really scanning. As radar beam is example 4.5 degrees cone, it will scan larger volume at longer distance than at closer distance, as the radar beam will be wider in diameter further it is measured from radar. This is as well what makes radar less accurate at the long range, as well less sensitive.
When you select the slew mode, you see the calculated vertical volume for given range, so example at 5 NMI range radar with 4 bars scan only 16-22 kft vertical volume, at same 4 bars at 100 NMI it is covering 2-35 kft vertical volume.
The visual information in numbers help to come up for setting, like wingman tells that enemy was flying at 3000 ft and was about 15 NMI from you, that you can adjust your radar vertical angle so that scan is example 1-5 kft at 10 NMI and know that you should detect it.
Doing that just with bars value tells nothing about volume. It isn't manual, you just get adjusting radar vertical scan angle to point radar as needed.

[Venyamira]

Great video man! Very informative! Definitely looking forward to the update.

[landmarkrealtypremier]

F26 radar jamming not working - I've been playing the VTOL and trying to use the Jammer while selecting ground AAA & SAMS - I can select the targets on ARAD but unable to use the Jammer ( cannot select the TGP, GPS, ARAD, nor select the BAND. Anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this issue?

[dut]

You sure "soft lock" isnt TWS mode lock? Track While Scan like in DCS

[super_]

When slewing the selector on the radar forwards and back, you arent increasing or decreasing the upper/lower bounds of the radar volume. The display is simply showing you the upper/lower bounds for that section. Since the radar projects outward like a cone, the further away your curspr gets, the larger the cone becomes and subsequently so does the upper/lower bounds.

[thexlonewolf]

To further explain jamming, there are three kinds of radar degredation: noise, or barrage jamming, DRFM, and signature augmentation.

Noise jamming is fairly straightforward: it overloads the targetted emitter with false returns, causing the real target to be lost in the noise. It's very useful for jamming multiple radars at once if you can get them all on the same bearing. It can also hide any allies that are in the jamming corridor, delaying lock-on. However, you have to manually set the frequency band of the jammer and your radar is unavailable while jamming. It also gives away your bearing (though not your range) and you're susceptable to missiles fired in home-on-jam mode.

Digital Radio Frequency Memory, or DRFM jamming, is more complex than simple noisemaking. It involves digitizing the received radar signal and modifying it to achieve a result. Typically, DRFM jamming does this by copying the radio frequency of the radar pinging you and sending it back to the receiver at a higher power. This creates a loud, but false track that the jammer then "walks" away from your aircraft to break a lock. The advantages of DRFM jamming are that it automatically matches the frequency of the emitting radar, and it can pull single-target tracks (hard locks) off you. The disadvantage of DRFM is that it can only affect one emitter at a time, allowing multiple enemy radars to cross-reference and get your actual location.

Finally, there's Signature Augmentation. It operates on many of the same principles as DRFM jamming, but instead of walking the false track away from your ship, it modulates the signature so you instead appear as a different track. The primary use case for this is to have a MALD decoy appear as a larger aircraft, say, an F-26. The advantage here is that signature augmentation can't be tracked by missiles in home-on-jam mode and in PvP lobbies specifically, it can trick enemy players into making decisions based on bad info. The disadvantage is that it doesn't hide your actual position, and in many cases, the decoy radar pulse is a lot stronger than the actual return, which can actually give your position away.

[elalixo]

wow, thanks, man. I feel a lot more prepared going into 1.8 now because of this video. good job on the video, very good quality.(i know it sounds like I'm being sarcastic but i am being entirely truthful ) :)

[michaelwestmoreland]

I'll take it for ECM, but...the radar change is a flat nerf that would only apply to the T-55. Every other aircraft is advanced enough to have phased array setups.

Also, NOT a fan of jamming only working forward.

Great video, though. Well arranged.

[Nick_o]

Will AI SAM sites fire in HOJ mode? If so what are some tips for evading? Can missiles launched in HOJ mode be retargeted after launch if the jammer is deactivated?

[MBKillrCat]

Did they remove the MODE button (and thus DRFM) from the F/A-26B's jamming pod?

[Scooge]

What do all of the readings on radar after locking on a target mean? If A=altitude, what are the others?