page_title: Anti-aircraft warfare
section_title: Air defence versus air defence suppression
hierarchical_section_title: Anti-aircraft warfare / Tactics / Air defence versus air defence suppression
caption_attribution_description: A Luftwaffe (German Air Force) Panavia Tornado ECR (s/n 46+54) of JaboG 32, Lechfeld (Germany), armed with an AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile and a jamming pod attached to the wings, and an AGM-88 HARM air-to-ground missile attached to the underside of the fuselage heads back towards its patrol area after refueling from a USAF Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker (not shown) of the 100th Air Expeditionary Wing. JaboG 32 (32nd Fighter-Bomber Wing) is one of the German Air Force's premier combat aircraft wings. The Tornado ECR is a specialized aircraft to detect and attack surface radars and surface-to-air missile launchers (a.k.a. Wild Weasel aircraft). JaboG 32 Tornadoes took part in Operation Allied Force from 24 March to 11 June 1999. They flew for 2.108 hours in 446 sorties over former Yugoslavia and the Kosovo and launched 236 HARM missiles. The KC-135R was assigned to the 92nd Air Refueling Wing, Fairchild Air Force Base (Washington, USA), but was deployed to Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall to bolster the 100th AEW in support of NATO Operation Allied Force. Both assigned tankers and deployed tankers flying from RAF Mildenhall made up a large portion of the tanker assets supporting NATO aircraft in NATO Operation Allied Force in 1999.
context_page_description: Anti-aircraft warfare or counter-air defence is defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action". It includes surface based, subsurface, and air-based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements, and passive measures. It may be used to protect naval, ground, and air forces in any location. However, for most countries the main effort has tended to be homeland defence. NATO refers to airborne air defence as counter-air and naval air defence as anti-aircraft warfare. Missile defence is an extension of air defence, as are initiatives to adapt air defence to the task of intercepting any projectile in flight.
  In some countries, such as Britain and Germany during the Second World War, the Soviet Union, and modern NATO and the United States, ground-based air defence and air defence aircraft have been under integrated command and control. However, while overall air defence may be for homeland defence, forces in the field, wherever they are, invariably deploy their own air defence capability if there is an air threat.
context_section_description: Israel and the US Air Force, in conjunction with the members of NATO, have developed significant tactics for air defence suppression. Dedicated weapons such as anti-radiation missiles and advanced electronics intelligence and electronic countermeasures platforms seek to suppress or negate the effectiveness of an opposing air-defence system. It is an arms race; as better jamming, countermeasures and anti-radiation weapons are developed, so are better SAM systems with ECCM capabilities and the ability to shoot down anti-radiation missiles and other munitions aimed at them or the targets they are defending.
caption: AGM-88 and AIM-9 on a Luftwaffe Tornado.
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image ExifOffset": "78", "Thumbnail Compression": "0", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "214", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4611", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated"}