Optically Guided SAMs in Nam

[yahya]

An interesting story can be found at: https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2016/03/25/republic-f-105g-thunderchief-hanoi-hustler/. It elaborates how the F-105G SEAD planes were dealt with by a Fan Song-F 'passive radar' site with optical tracking in Nam in 1971. No warning tone from the RWR could be heard by the crew then. In that time, no effective MAWS were operational.

Below is a wikipedia piece on the optically guided SA-2 (from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-75_Dvina):

S-75SM (NATO codename SA-2F): Fan Song-F radar and V-750SM missiles. After watching jamming in Vietnam and the Six-Day War render the S-75 completely ineffective, the existing systems were quickly upgraded with a new radar system designed to help ignore wide-band scintillation jamming. The command system also included a home-on-jam mode to attack aircraft carrying strobe jammers, as well as a completely optical system (of limited use) when these failed. Fs were developed starting in 1968 and deployed in the USSR later that year, while shipments to Vietnam started in late 1970.

Considering that the radar tracking and fire control radar were nonoperational in such a setup, my wonder is whether the guidance signals from an earth station to an SA-2 in flight could have been jammed or spoofed to deflect an attack unless megawatts of RF power were pumped by the fire control earth station?

 

[Dilandu]

Considering that the radar tracking and fire control radar were nonoperational in such a setup, my wonder is whether the guidance signals from an earth station to an SA-2 in flight could have been jammed or spoofed to deflect an attack unless megawatts of RF power were pumped by the fire control earth station?

Unless the working frequency of specific missile guidance channel was known beforehand, it would require far too much power. The command receiver antenna on the missile was oriented downward and was relatively narrow angle one.

 

[yahya]

Thank you. What about a hypothetical situation in which specialized radio receivers on board SEAD aircraft could detect such transmissions and immediately commence jamming against the command channel unless the distance between the jammers and the missile in flight was too far? Would such a scenario be feasible in real combat?