The Royal Navy has officially endorsed its advanced electronic warfare system, the Maritime Electronic Warfare System Integrated Capability (MEWSIC), following positive feedback from its first round of testing.
Scheduled to be integrated into the Navy’s two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, six Type 45 destroyers, and the next-generation frigate force, including eight Type 26 City-class sub-hunters and five Type 31 Inspiration-class general-purpose warships, MEWSIC promises to enhance the Fleet’s electronic warfare (EW) operations.
Electronic Warfare, a pivotal but often under-publicised aspect of operations, involves the use of electromagnetic energy to detect, intercept, and exploit enemy forces and communications. MEWSIC will upgrade the Royal Navy’s radar electronic support and electronic warfare command and control capabilities, essential for planning and executing complex operations.
The initial evaluation of MEWSIC involved a team of six Royal Navy electronic warfare experts, two scientists from DSTL (the government’s military labs), and two experts from Defence Equipment and Support. They tested the first software iteration, offering crucial feedback on its capabilities and user experience compared to existing systems.
A standout feature of MEWSIC is the Electromagnetic Warfare Command and Control (EWC2). This new functionality integrates electromagnetic emissions with the operational tactical picture, enhancing situational awareness in the ops room.
It assists operators in delivering timely and accurate countermeasures by improving their understanding of the operational environment.
The system also supports advanced planning tools that enable operators to configure and update the system with the latest intelligence, rehearsing scenarios en route to operational areas.
Reassuring to see the RN investment in intelligent smarts: MEWSIC, software enhancements to sonar, smarter decoy launchers. Every bit as important as the things that go bang.
I take it these so called EW experts are ratings (senior and junior) who have up to date experience of using the Kit in operational roles instead of a couple of Lt Cdrs who have not been to sea since the year dot..
I can guess who the RN used
There was a young 17and half year old Golly (ew) rating serving on Hms Gloucester during OP Granby (Gulf War 1) 1991 at his position and recognised the ew, signature of an Iraqi Silkeorm missile his action enabled its destruction the yanks were ever so grateful
Recognised…
I would hope the EW set alarm would have been screaming at him first!
Cue loud whistle blast , a NATO ID name and bearing line shouted out for everyone in the OPS Room to hear.
You never forget how much that whistle blast and the subsequent shout focus’s you on stuff getting very, very real, very, very quickly.
I Was ever so lucky ,if not up the Gun I was maintaining the Close range never needed too be in the dreaded Gloom Room
and so they should h5 been
Endorses. So that’s fitted for but not fitted with again them.
Did you even read the article, the next paragraph lists all the ships its being fitted to.
and are we surprised,?
I don’t quite understand why all RN major surface vessels and key RFA ships are not getting a full EW and the new SEA decoy launchers…
It would seem sensible to me that all the escorts, carriers, Amphibious vessels etc should all have top end EW and decoys.
Well for one we havent even got them in service yet. And costs is an obvious factor. Plus RFA ships dont have the expertise to operate EW systems.
cost? that’s no problem, we’ll just close another shore establishment and sell the site for building homes for the illegals👺👺
Full EW would be complicated at least looking at EW suits in American and Italian ships with ECM emitters almost at size of a 76mm gun.
But note this news seems to be about a “EW fire control system” , the brains that control all EW in a ship.
So not related to the presence or lack of ECM antennas in a ship.
agreed 👍
ESM is already tied into the Command System and displays EW racket bearing lines and Link pictures on the displays.
This is another greater level of data fusion that can be used by the operators to identify targets and their location.
You could for instance identify a target that you got an ESM hit on if the data fusion from your own bearing line or anyone else’s bearing line to give you a location and possibly range…(For range think map reading and taking back bearings from 3 landmarks to get a tricorn hat location of where you are on a map…same principle…)
Remember the Sea Ceptor system is sensor agnostic. It just needs to know where to fly to (which it gets from missile data link updates) for its own homing radar to go active…So you could launch it down a bearing line or towards where bearing lines cross before the missile itself goes active
Now just imagine if the RN had already trialled this capability…😏😁
So the River 2 radar is good enough for Sea Ceptor?
2D radar so without altitude information, missile might have to be fired nearer the ship to have fuel for a non optimum interception and CAMM radar might still miss the target anyway.
can we have that again in English?
would it fit a mighty river corvette,?
a far better use of funds than cable protection and motherships rubbish.