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Microwaves transmit on a frequency nowhere near missile systems and are not modulated in any way resembling a missile fire control system, but cool story.

ECM gear in US warplanes can classify a system based off its emissions and people think they're fooled by a microwave oven?



Not to be too provocative, but hugely expensive precision equipment being fooled by a microwave oven with the door cut off is exactly what I’d expect from the US military.


I mean, we had a SETI false alarm from the break room microwave door being opened without pressing the ‘stop’ button first…


[flagged]


Based on a long history of similar failures? As one example, claiming that they were bombing tanks when they were actually bombing “pneumatic rubber images of tanks” with heat sources strapped to them: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/377943.stm


Doesn't mean it worked. One can _attempt_ to create a decoy, especially if they have little knowledge of how radiation is transmitted into the environment. On South Park, Randy Marsh, a geologist with a Ph.D., puts his nuts in the microwave to get just enough cancer that he can qualify for medical marijuana. [0]

People often say "nuke" when referring to using a microwave.

I tried growing marijuana with CFL lights in my dorm room. When the cops showed up, I ate the biggest of the 3 plants, a few inches tall, right in front of them.

[0] https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Randy_Marsh


> Microwaves transmit on a frequency nowhere near missile systems

S band is used for target acquisition a whole lot.

> and are not modulated in any way resembling a missile fire control system

Yup, but when you're deciding whether or not to launch a HARM it's better safe than sorry. In turn, asymmetries accrue.

Indeed, you can't really afford to ignore the microwave oven S-band emitter, because you could use even a literal microwave oven for illumination with passive radar techniques for target acquisition pretty well.


So the obvious solution for any AAA designer would be to emulate the radiation pattern of a microwave as closely as possible?

Point being - even if the emissions doesn't match anything you have on record (except possibly a microwave) - would you risk a $100M airplane on it being a decoy?


Isn't it the control circuits surrounding the magnetron that do a lot of this work? If you clip off some transistors and wire on a new one, how much can you change the frequency?


Yes, ELINT systems have been able to distinguish and classify emission signatures in high resolution for ages.




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