Not necessarily just Israeli ones, but other F-16s in the region. At least this was the official reason given, but then we saw the F-4 Phantoms, MiG-21s, Mirage 5s, Alpha Jets also receive the orange patches so then it became a general in-field, visual ID system between airborne & ground units as well, and especially during many of the training exercises that were scheduled between the US & Egypt and others in the region. Full disclosure has never been given as to the full purpose of those silly things.
Yes I noticed other fighters too with those high viz markings. I guessed that in times of conflict they'd be painted over, or else those Egyptian fighters will be visually far easier to pick up from a distance.
Yes. Especially since all 8 E-2C Hawkeyes essentially communicate using link-16, then all American weaponry in the Egyptian arsenal that is capable of accessing that data linkage such as many of the US ships and frigates and destroyers etc. along with the entire fleet of F-16 (and at the time until their retirement, the F-4 Phantoms) and now the Rafale can all communicate in real time with the AWACs platforms through link-16. If they do end up with the Typhoon, then that's also Link-16 compatible
As of now, the only system out of the fray is the MiG-29/35 and eventually the Su-35S and what they do with their Russian & Chinese system is probably some form of integration with link-16 as described above. If they use an entirely different data link network, I would think that would be much more complex and unnecessary to do, whereas if they expanded their current and existing link-16 that they already have in many of their platforms would be a much easier task IMO. But that part is a bit of an unknown and interesting which was why I had asked you fellas how India does it, being that they have similarly a variety of weapon's from different sources that might not have a common network but need to by put onto one. There's also a slight security risk I would think, unless there's a way to seclude your own network -- which is basically the same one all of NATO uses lol! -- then that would work.
Good, so all the Western jets and ships can talk to each other and share SA. But it's not clear how the E-2Cs would be able to share data with the MiG-35 or Su-35s in the future. Is Egypt building some sort of ground terminals that could take in Link16 data and transmit it securely back to the Russian fighters?
The Indian AWACs are primarliy Israeli phalcons mounted on Russian IL-78s, right? Besides the pair of Embraer EMB-145 and the upcoming Brazilian AWACs or something like that I forget. But it's quite the involved system, it seems.
Yes, 3 Phalcons and 3 Netra AEW&C.
BTW, the AESA radar of the Netra is an indigenously developed one, mounted on a EMB-145 jet. All the terminals, the software for the AEW&C, SATCOM, all of it is Indian. So the only Brazilian thing in it is the EMB-145 and the integration of the AESA plank on the jet plus IFR. Worked really well during the Balakot strike, where the Netra AEW&C guided the package of Mirage-2000s that struck the terrorist camp in Pakistan.
There was a plan to buy 2 more Phalcons on Il-76s but that has gone into the freezer as of now with the likelihood that it'll be shelved. There is a new AWACS-India project ongoing to mount an indigenous AESA rotodome on a A-330. But that'll take a decade to be in service.
There is a national ODL (Operational Data Link) that has been in the works for quite some time now. It is supposed to tie in all of the IAF's fighters, AWACS, AEW&C, ground radar stations, SAM units, etc. It was supposed to be done in phases, and some of those may have been completed. India has a central IACCS that ties all radars and AWACS together to bring in a common Situation Awareness picture at the national level. But to be honest, I am not sure about how far along it is when it comes to fighters using ODL. There is very little info on this and it is very secretive which is understandable.
Interesting. Do you have a picture of that Rafale attached decoy? Would like to see it.
May not have been integrated on the IAF Rafales that are flying as of now. One of the Rafale two seaters (RB008 I believe) will remain in France and will be the last to be delivered to the IAF. It is the testbed for all of the India Specific Enhancements package. If this news of the Towed Decoy X-Guard is true, we'll eventually see it on IAF Rafales.
I know the MiG-35s were slated to have the MSP-418K jamming & countermeasures system. If this thing works as advertised, then this is just unbelievable technology and should be mounted on every single aircraft! Did India acquire this Russian system also with the Su-30MKIs or the MiG-29s?
The Russians are late to the game on the SP jammers. IAF fighters have been using Israeli Elta E-8222 SPJ for a long time now.
Su-30s, Jaguars, MiG-27s, Sea Harriers and even MiG-29s were integrated with this pod earlier. But they never bought enough of these Elta 8222 pods to equip all fighters fleet wide.
Here's a MiG-21 Bison with an Elta 8222 SPJ.
MiG-27 with the Elta 8222 SPJ pod
Tejas Mk1A will likely use the Elta E-8222WB wide band self protection and jamming pod. It is even smaller and lighter than the Russian one and also uses DRFM. My expectation is that we'll see these Elta 8222 WB SPJs making their way back to the Tejas Mk1 fleet as well.
This is how the SPJ will be mounted on the Tejas Mk1A
Elta radar and EW pods on Tejas Mk1A
The only Russian system known to have been acquired was the SAP-518 pods for the Su-30MKIs. And even that is very rarely seen on the fleet.
