How do you use EW and SEAD planes?

[vSMiLEXv]

I would send one out in front of my bombers/fighters, it would produce a cool blue ring animation all around it on the map and then it just gets shot down in a matter of seconds.

How does it work properly?

Thanks.

[^4Syl^7isse]

EW planes are here to increase your bombers' ECM, they should stay away from the front and just provide that bonus with the edge of their gigantic EW range
SEAD planes have 2 purposes :
the first one is to hunt and destroy radar AA but it doesn always work
the second one is to act as a decoy, by sending the SEAD plane 1 or 2 sec before your bomber; you're counting on the ennemy AA targeting it instead of the real threat and expecting its excellent ECM to save it

[JDPUK]

İlk olarak ^4Syl^7isse tarafından gönderildi:

EW planes are here to increase your bombers' ECM, they should stay away from the front and just provide that bonus with the edge of their gigantic EW range
SEAD planes have 2 purposes :
the first one is to hunt and destroy radar AA but it doesn always work
the second one is to act as a decoy, by sending the SEAD plane 1 or 2 sec before your bomber; you're counting on the ennemy AA targeting it instead of the real threat and expecting its excellent ECM to save it

Nice explanation.

[Grant]

İlk olarak vSMiLEXv tarafından gönderildi:

I would send one out in front of my bombers/fighters, it would produce a cool blue ring animation all around it on the map and then it just gets shot down in a matter of seconds.

How does it work properly?

Thanks.

Also, if you hunt SAMs with SEAD, please send them parallel to the enemy front line and not send them straight into the enemy radar units. More likely than not, they will know to turn off their radar unit or bait with cheap radar AA, so the SEAD flies over their non-radar AA.

[vSMiLEXv]

İlk olarak ^4Syl^7isse tarafından gönderildi:

EW planes are here to increase your bombers' ECM, they should stay away from the front and just provide that bonus with the edge of their gigantic EW range
SEAD planes have 2 purposes :
the first one is to hunt and destroy radar AA but it doesn always work
the second one is to act as a decoy, by sending the SEAD plane 1 or 2 sec before your bomber; you're counting on the ennemy AA targeting it instead of the real threat and expecting its excellent ECM to save it

Thanks a lot.

So, basically
- EW planes: you only call them ahead of the bombing runs and circle next to the frontline giving the bombers an ECM boost
- SEAD planes: you can send them straight ahead of the bombers/fighters hoping they will disable the radars, SAMs, etc.

[DasaKamov]

İlk olarak vSMiLEXv tarafından gönderildi:

So, basically
- EW planes: you only call them ahead of the bombing runs and circle next to the frontline giving the bombers an ECM boost

You don't want EW planes "next to the frontline" if you can help it. If they're within AA range, they will get shot at and, although they have the highest ECM rating of all aircraft, law of averages says they won't be able to dodge missiles forever.
Instead, keep them just close enough the your freindly aircraft is within the EW aircraft's radius of influence.

SEAD planes: you can send them straight ahead of the bombers/fighters hoping they will disable the radars, SAMs, etc.

Kinda. As others said, you don't want to fly SEAD straight into the midst of enemy SAMs; you only have 2-4 anti-radiation missiles, and your SEAD aircraft have no effect on IR AA units or enemy fighter aircraft.

Also, skilled players will turn off their radar weapons if they see your SEAD aircraft all by its lonesome, and either shoot your plane down with fighters or wait for your SEAD to run out of fuel. You'll sometimes want to "bait" enemy radar AA with fighters or CAS aircraft and have the SEAD loitering behind, the bait aircraft, forcing the other player to make the hard decision of turning on their SAMs and risk getting destroyed, or turn off their SAMs and let your fighter-bombers run rampant.

[Nannun]

play tutorials

[Gen.West]

What I also do: send a swarm of 2-3 SEAD planes a few sec apart just to wear down enemy AA - the first SEAD baits players who deactivate their radar into activating it as soon as it turns away, only to be caught by the 2nd SEAD. Not works every time and not in heavily defended airspace though.

[xXFaZeHoChiMinhXx]

EW planes reduce radar AA accuracy around them by 20% and spot radar AA. It does not give other planes higher ecm. This is important to understand as it does not effect manpads and any other non radar aa.

ECM only effects missiles fyi.

Use them as supports for bombing runs or spotters to take down radar aa with artillery or bombing.

[vSMiLEXv]

Thank you, guys. Really appreciate the responses!