If there is one area in which the air forces, and more particularly the European ones, have lost capacity, it is in the suppression of enemy radars. In France, the last air force units with MARTEL anti-radar missiles on Mirage IIIE and Jaguar lost this capability in 1999, without any replacement program having been launched. The Luftwaffe, equipped with Tornado, retained this know-how, by equipping itself with HARM AGM-88 missiles, missions which they continue to carry out today. So far equipped with AGM-88B Block IIIB, the German planes, of which we do not know whether they will be Tornado, Typhoon, or F/A 18 Super Hornet, will now be able to carry the latest version of this missile which initially entered service in 1985, the AGM-88E, with a homing device integrating a millimeter radar capable of identifying materials by their shape , with the ability to prioritize targets.
In the competition which now opposes the Typhoon of Eurofighter and Airbus DS, and the F/A18 Super Hornet from Boeing, to replace the German Tornados, the mission of suppressing opposing radars is widely emphasized, even suggesting that an electronic warfare version of the device, some 'it is, could be considered. An approach which is reminiscent of that made in this article, which presented an analysis of the need for an electronic warfare and anti-radar aircraft for the French air forces, as well as how to finance it. Because this capability is sorely lacking in French aircraft, even if weapons like the A2SM guided bomb make it possible, theoretically, to destroy radar systems when they are powered by the SPECTRA of the Rafale.
