Kalaetron Attack
Airborne jamming systems in the electromagnetic spectrumThe challenge
Electromagnetic warfare (EW) plays a critical role in modern military operations, which rely heavily on the electromagnetic spectrum .
Electronic attack (EA) is a key component of EW, enabling forces to jam, disrupt and spoof adversary signals to gain an advantage on the battlefield.
Example:
Immediately after take-off, our aircraft may already be within range of advanced enemy integrated air defence systems, such as the S-400. While the hostile radar systems may detect our aircraft at distances of up to 400 km, the onboard sensors of the aircraft may be unable to detect the threat at that range. As a result, pilots could be approaching hostile airspace without being aware that their aircraft have already been detected.
Our solution
Building on more than 50 years of experience in developing EW technologies, HENSOLDT has created Kalaetron Attack, an airborne EA solution within the wider Kalaetron family of self-protection systems.
The system uses active electronically scanned array (AESA)technology and digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) to digitally target and jam signals. It can jam multiple threats simultaneously, providing protection against a range of hostile air defence systems. It can be controlled from the aircraft cockpit and integrated with existing onboard systems via their interfaces.
Kalaetron Attack can be operated autonomously with its 360° electronic support measures (ESM) running in the background. These passively detect and identify potential threats cross-referencing signals with an existing threat library to alert the pilot.
Features and benefits
Features
EW AESA with GaN solid state amplifiers
- Instantaneous multi-beam capability
- Combating multiple threats simultaneously using time-division multiplexing (TDM)
- CW capability (100% duty cycle)
- Multiple polarisation options
- Direction finding
- Wide field of view
- Inherent beam stabilisation for agile flight manoeuvres
Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM)
- Integrated EA processor for mission management
- Advanced jamming technique generation
- Wide instantaneous bandwidth
- Interface to onboard ESM systems
- Dual channel
- Autonomous or user-controlled jamming
- Pulse and time-domain sample streaming
Spectrum Battle Management Suite (SBMS)
- Threat library generation
- Mission planning
- Intuitive map-centric user interface
- Post-mission analysis
- Integrated ESM functionality
- Open architecture
Benefits
- Flight-tested
- Highly scalable and adaptable architecture
- High effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) enables stand-off range jamming
- AI-assisted identification of enemy air defence systems
- Combination of multiple jamming techniques
- Predictive pulse repetition interval (PRI) tracking
- Proven software suite for every stage of a mission
- Integration into a system-of-systems architecture
Configuration
Kalaetron Attack is available in three different versions:
Stand-off jamming
- Long-distance jamming from outside the weapon engagement zone (WEZ)
- Combined radar and comms jamming
- Software-defined, modular and scalable solution
- Adaptable to different platforms
- Designed to meet NATO and operational requirements
Escort jamming
- Enables spectrum dominance at the required distance
- Integrated solution for uncrewed platforms, including collaborative combat aircraft
- Helps protect allied forces against enemy air defence systems
- Suppresses or degrades adversary electromagnetic capabilities
- Combined ESM and electronic countermeasures (ECM) capability
Stand-in jamming
- Enables operations in close proximity to hostile air defence systems
- Supports decoy missions and suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD) / destruction of enemy air defences (DEAD) missions in conjunction with kinetic weapons
- Complements airborne jamming solutions
- Pre-emptive EW measures to counter battlefield threats
- Software-defined, modular and scalable solution