SEAD / Wild Weasel
Train SEAD strike packages against a reactive integrated air defence — real RF cues from a handful of emitters, run as one battle position on one picture.
A whole integrated air defence, run as one battle position from a handful of emitters.
A strike package needs to train against a layered integrated air defence — search radars, acquisition, tracking, engagement — with operational RF cues showing up on their own equipment. A full live threat laydown would demand dozens of emitters no range actually owns. The Arena runs the integrated air defence constructively and drives the few physical emitters the range does have, so the package faces a far larger, denser threat than the hardware alone could ever present.
Plan
The threat operator and the mission director build the integrated air defence together: constructive surface-to-air, anti-aircraft and early-warning sites with doctrine, radar behaviour, and engagement rules drawn from the threat library. The physical emitters on the range are registered into the scenario and assigned to represent specific threat systems. Objectives are set: survive to the target area, defeat the engagement, and validate the SEAD effects.
Brief
The package briefs the threat laydown, the expected RF environment, and the SEAD plan — all from the same single mission picture. Readiness checks confirm the constructive sites, the emitter adapters, recording, and the threat-operator station are all up and ready to fight.
Execute
As the package pushes in, the threat operator runs the integrated air defence as a reactive opponent, not a script — live emitters and constructive sites worked from one battle position, never separate scopes. Constructive sites transition through search, acquisition, track, and engagement as the geometry develops, while the Arena commands a physical emitter to present whichever threat is currently relevant, pointed at the engaged aircraft, so aircrew get real threat-warning indications off their own jet. That one emitter hands off from site to site as the package moves, standing in for a whole belt of threats. When an aircraft fires a SEAD weapon, the engagement is modelled and captured and the operator adjudicates the effect on the site. The aircrew experience a dense, shifting integrated air defence — the range operated only a handful of emitters.
Debrief
The debrief replays the engagement with the emitter timeline alongside the constructive picture: which site acquired, when the warning cue appeared, how the crew reacted, and whether the SEAD shot defeated the threat. The link between the live hardware and the synthetic scenario is part of the record, so the team can explain exactly how the threat environment behaved.
- Reactive integrated air defence — constructive forces and threat doctrine drive sites through search, acquisition, track, and engagement
- Physical emitter control — operational RF cues driven straight from the scenario onto the aircrew's own equipment
- Live/constructive augmentation — one emitter hands off site to site, standing in for a whole threat belt
- SEAD engagement evidence — weapon flyout and effects modelled and captured for adjudication
- One battle position, one picture — the threat operator and asset controller run the entire integrated air defence as a single coherent fight
AIR COMBAT ARENA / MISSION PROFILE
The capabilities behind the fight
Bring us the fight you need to rehearse, and we will walk you through how the Arena runs it — plan to debrief, on one coherent picture.
Related pages
SEAD / Wild Weasel: suppression of enemy air defences with Air Combat Arena
A generic training illustration of how ArenaLogic Air Combat Arena trains suppression of enemy air defences: physical emitters connected to a larger computer-generated air-defence network, real radio-frequency cues on the crew's own aircraft, live emitters and constructive sites controlled from one battle position, reactive threats under White Cell control, and a shared debrief from the exercise record.
Film transcript
A complex threat environment
A strike package enters a complex threat environment. Search radars, tracking systems and simulated engagements all compete for the crew's attention. This is training for suppression of enemy air defences.
Real emitters, synthetic threats
Air Combat Arena connects physical emitters with a larger, computer-generated air-defence network. Crews receive real radio-frequency cues on their own aircraft, as part of the shared training scenario.
One battle position
From one battle position, the operator controls live emitters and constructive sites in the same tactical picture. The exercise can be prepared, briefed and managed as one mission.
A reactive training challenge
As the mission develops, the synthetic threats react. Search, acquisition and tracking states change, while the White Cell adjusts the pressure to meet the training objectives.
Capture the engagement
The exercise captures the relationship between the threat, the crew's response and the engagement outcome. Decisions become evidence that the team can return to.
Review the mission together
In the debrief, participants review what the threat presented, how they reacted and what happened next. A shared record makes the lessons clear.
More training value from your range assets
Build a more demanding training environment around the range assets you already have, with Air Combat Arena.