Chaff technology as the ace of modern EW

- Cdt Shirshendu Pandey

30777/N/115

Introduction: Chaff is not a new concept at all. The chaff was born during
the progression of the WW II and first used against the German radars by the
royal air force. These are on most general grounds thin and flexible metal
strips that when deployed act as an illusion or a decoy to the enemy radar.
The basic property of chaff since then remained the same as it was of the
first prototype i.e. reflecting max amount of radar beams (electronic
emissions rather, not just from radar also from other EW devices). Needless
to say the efficiency of chaff technology has led to the birth of chaff concept.
It forms a strong ECM weapon and the future transformations in the
technology will make it more important in the modern battle theatre.

Modern battle scenario and requirements: The debate over the

implications, weapons and strategies of future war is endless. To put in
better words, it’s the scope of battle that has inflated to an unprecedented
magnitude. The technological advances have made battle less dependent of
on-ground heroes and more dependent of the heroes of war room, control
centers and rear stage artists. With most of the technologies losing the
ground owing to new technologies, chaff seems to accelerate its power and
potential on the battle field of the future. The future world would rely on
EW, information warfare, intelligence warfare and missiles. The winner
would be the one which can defend its power sources, manage complicated
logistics and most importantly facilitate command and control in all
conditions.

Chaff and its deployment: Chaff as already discussed is the technique of

creating short lived clouds of metal dust or strips of appropriate nature
designed to illusion the enemy radar by reflecting more radiation than the
deploying unit or vehicle. This gives a false position to the enemy and a
false target to a homing missile. The U.S. has begun using chaff also against
electronic jammers too.
Ex-Hey Rube and the new innovation: During a naval exercise Hey Rube
the U.S. Navy was trying to find the efficiency of a new chaff. This was a
rope chaff that was embedded with glass impregnated with metal pieces. It
was supposed to be lighter and should have stayed longer in the air.
Although the chaff proved more than efficient due to lighter weight, it was
absorbed into the westerly winds rather than floating down to the sea. The
strong wind carried it along 90 miles north east where it lost the force and
the chaff floated down over the power transformers in San Diego, Spain.
The effect was shocking. Within seconds the city had an unexplained
blackout.
After hours of consistent engineering the cause was known. The U.S. chaff
made up of glass laminated metal pieces had produced complex and
numerous magnetic fields that had brought the transformer to a standstill.
While the U.S. paid heavy compensation for the same, the accident formed
the base of a new innovation. The U.S. overtime evolved very tiny fibers
that could do the same job more efficiently. These were assembled and
developed into a deployable weapon warhead Kit-2. Kit-2 can be used with
the Tomahawk and deployed at various ranges. The weapon remains a
closely guarded secret because if known the weapon could also be used
against U.S. power supplies and the effect would be disastrous. There are
indications that the Kit-2 is now available in a new version i.e. anti-
communication systems chaff. This new chaff will produce enormous noise
in the enemy communication sys bringing the unit to a radio isolation state.
Well, half the war is won if the communication and power units are made
dysfunctional.

The war time performance of the new chaff in The Gulf War 1991: The
anti-power sys chaff was brought to full use in the Gulf war 1991. A list of
28 main power sources was made and the Kit-2s were deployed. Before the
first bombers attacked most of the defense power supplies were shut down.
Most stationary radar units using local supplies were inoperable and gave no
resistance to the fighter and interdiction forces of the Navy. Only mobile
scud batteries with mounted radars were a problem. SAS, SBS and SEAL
operations revealed their camouflaged locations to the air attackers. Thus,
the Kit-2s were the instantaneous heroes. All the power generators attacked
by the Kit-2s remained out of service for most of the war. The power cut
around the country not only brought the business to a halt but also brought
the morale of citizens down. Some ships attacked by the Kit-2s became
immobile and lifeless. It’s evident that there is no match to the anti-power
sys and anti-communication sys chaff in today’s and in the future’s war.

Lessons: Like most of the other technologies even chaff doesn’t discern
friend from foe. This weapon should therefore be used with great care. Any
friendly unit near enemy target would equally suffer. During the Gulf war
many Kit-2s were not able to reach the exact location due to atmospheric
disturbances. So, the winds and meteorological factors must be taken care of
while undertaking chaff operations of this kind. The weapon is best used
when one has the first strike capability. Being able to deploy a weapon
doesn’t end the job. It’s equally important to defend oneself from the same
technology if used first by the enemy. One must see to it that the ground
sources must not use local supplies and if they did they must be equipped
with an underground back up facility with purified air intake. As far as
surface ships are concerned they must prefer an isolated power plant with a
purified air intake. The anti-communication kit-2 has not been used yet but if
deployed would be difficult to defend. Nevertheless technological advances
never stop with a weapon; a new technology to curb this one would be soon
on its way to advancement.

Conclusion: India cannot afford to be ignorant of such advancements in

modern war technologies. Such nature of warfare is very peaceful and less
destructive in action and a peaceful country like India must exploit its
potential to the fullest.