An EW Perception of Requirements for Maritime Sensor and Weapon Integration

In order to defend a ship against an attack by anti-ship missiles, it is necessary for the ship to detect the attacking forces, and then to use its entire defensive suite of weapons. These weapons may consist of anti-missile as on-board jammers, off-board decoys, and chaff. To maximize the probability of detecting and identifying the attacking forces and the missiles launched against the ship, information from all of the ships sensors must be integrated. Similarly, if the chances of defeating the incoming missile attack are to be maximized, the defensive weapons must be deployed in a sequential and co- ordinated manner, in a layered defence. This paper discusses the advantages to be obtained from the integration of sensor data and the co-ordination of hard- kill missiles, guns and soft-kill ECM, decoys, chaff weapons systems. Problems of information from different sensors, the need for a layered defence, the characteristics of the various systems, a typical scenario to illustrate the need for integration, possible architectures and issues that must be addressed are examined. The approach is from the viewpoint of Electronic Warfare, but encompasses all aspects of the sensors and weapons available. Canada.