The US Air Force has officially announced that the Ukrainian F-16 fighter jets have got reprogramming of their EW subsystems. These updates were made specifically to make EW subsystems of Ukrainian F-16 to be effective against evolving russian threats in the spectrum.
These works were carried out by the 68th Electronic Warfare Squadron, which is an Air Force center of Electronic Warfare excellence, focused on increasing the lethality and survivability of the U.S. and its strategic partners by developing, testing and delivering full-spectrum Electromagnetic Warfare support.
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As reported on the official web-site of the US Air Force's 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing, it was a unique operation due to several factors.
First, the work had to be carried out on the equipment that is not in service with the US Air Force. On the part of Defense Express, we note that we are obviously talking about the ECIPS/CJS container, which was spotted on Ukrainian fighter jets.
Secondly, the deadlines that were tied to the date of the transfer of fighter jets to Ukraine were very tight. Therefore, American specialists first had to investigate the real capabilities of the equipment, and then modernize its software part based on the algorithms used by the US Air Force to counter russian air defense systems.
It is worth adding that the very fact of this is already quite interesting. Because it turns out that the Netherlands and Denmark, namely the planes of these countries, as mentioned, received updates, did not have access to American advanced solutions. Although it is possible that it is only a matter of interest and the European partners simply did not show the appropriate initiative.
In any case, American specialists worked together with European colleagues, as well as successfully tested all updates. Thanks to this, it is possible to be sure that the Ukrainian F-16s really got very interesting opportunities to effectively suppress russian systems, which means increasing the safety and effectiveness of attacks on russian air defense systems.
But what is more important is that the official message clearly states, that "this case will provide combat-tested data to improve capabilities". It means, that the US Air Force will receive information from Ukrainian colleagues regarding the use of these electronic warfare devices in real combat. This will make it possible to make further updates to the operation of the systems, not only for Ukraine, but also for the United States as well as other NATO members.
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