
sprstdlyscottsmn wrote:ricnunes wrote:But something tells me that since "Jamming" is "Active" that it can be counter-detected (as opposed to "passive"/real stealth).
Absolutely. That becomes a battle of "how discreetly can my jammer work to not trigger the other guys EW?" which I would think is a function of the RCS being hidden and range. Hiding an F-35 is childs play, hiding an F-16 isn't too hard, but hiding a B-52 might well be impossible for a Barracuda.
You are correct that jamming effectiveness (required jamming power) is a function of RCS and range. Naturally there are other things that affect jamming effectiveness like jamming type and techical capabilties of jammer and radar.
I don't think that hiding even a B-52 would be impossible for Barracuda depending on radar, but it would require jammer to be closer and/or B-52 being further away from the radar than when protecting F-16. If we assume that B-52 has 100 times higher RCS than F-16 and F-35 doing stand-off jamming from 100 km away from the radar and let's say it can mask the F-16 until it gets 50 km away from the radar. Then B-52 would be masked further than about 160 km away from the radar if my quick calculation is correct. Or in other words the F-35 doing jamming would need to be about 15 km away from the radar to mask a B-52 50 km away from the radar.
The importance of low RCS is clear when F-35 could get to something like 5 km from the radar in the above example. We have to remember than frontal RCS of F-16 is actually a lot closer to B-52 than it is to F-35.
Of course putting more wattage in jammer system can also give added effectiveness but B-52 would require 100 times more power than F-16 for the same performance. Or possibly something like million times more power than F-35!

I can easily see why F-35 is said to be so very powerful jamming system. VLO stealth means it can get a lot closer to threat radars than almost any other aircraft with significant jamming capabilities. That directly multiplies the effects of jamming. Naturally the sensor system and excellent SA gives ability to position the aircraft to advantageous position without revealing itself.