Electronic Countermeasures

ECM Guide

This guide will help you start out your Electronic Warfare career with a specific focus on ECM (Electronic Counter Measure (a.k.a Jamming)) and using it effectively.

You should read this guide if:

• You are flying Caldari ships (other races ships offer little to no benefit to ECM)
• You love to annoy enemies
• You want to fly with groups of people
• You want to use ECM drones and would like to understand ECM mechanics

What is ECM?

ECM stands for Electronic Counter Measure and is also often referred to as Jamming. ECM modules allow you to cause a targeted ship to drop its target and lose its ability to target anything for 20 seconds (or longer). During combat this means the affected ship cannot shoot you or any of your fleet mates unless he/she is using Smart bombs or other area effect weapons, they may also use FoF missiles. ECM is generally regarded as the most effective Electronic Warfare technique.

Who should use ECM?

ECM is the preferred EWAR technique for pilots training in Caldari ships.

There are 3 Caldari ships which give specific bonuses to ECM:

• Griffin (Caldari frigate):
  • Caldari Frigate Skill Bonus
    • 15% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength
    • 10% bonus to ECM Target Jammers' capacitor need per level.

• Blackbird (Caldari cruiser):
  • Caldari Cruiser Skill Bonus
    • 15% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per level
    • 10% bonus to ECM Target Jammer optimal range and falloff per level.

• Scorpion (Caldari battleship):
  • Caldari Battleship Skill Bonus
    • 15% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per level
    • 20% bonus to ECM Target Jammer optimal and falloff range per level
    • 20% Bonus to ECM Burst Range per level

• Kitsune (Caldari tech 2 Electronic Attack Frigate):
  • Caldari Frigate Skill Bonus
    • 20% bonus to ECM target jammer strength and 10% reduction in ECM target jammers' capacitor need per level
  • Electronic Attack Ships Skill Bonus
    • 10% bonus to ECM target jammer optimal range and 5% bonus to capacitor capacity per level

• Rook (Caldari tech 2 Recon ship):
  • Caldari Cruiser Skill Bonus
    • 10% Bonus to ECM Target Jammer capacitor use per level
  • Recon Ships Skill Bonus:
    • 30% Bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per level

• Falcon(Caldari tech 2 Recon ship):
  • Caldari Cruiser Skill Bonus
    • 10% Bonus to ECM Target Jammer capacitor use per level
  • Recon Ships Skill Bonus
    • 30% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per level

ECM Modules

There are 3 main types of ECM modules:

• ECM Multispectral Jammers - These module are reasonable effective on all targets with a high capacitor cost. These modules have a significantly lower range than racial jammers.
• ECM Racial Jammers - These modules are effective against a single race of ships. They have a longer range and lower capacitor cost than multispectral jammer modules.
• ECM Burst Jammers - These modules will cause all ships within a certain range of your ship to be jammed. You do not need to be targeting anyone to use a Burst module. Burst modules consume a high amount of capacitor and are generally only used on Battleships. REMEMBER: The ECM burst modules will get you concorded when used in high sec and they will also jam your fellow fleet members if used in close proximity. These modules should only be used in low sec while you are by yourself!!!

Low slots and rigs:

• Signal distortion amplifier - These low slots increase the strength of your jammers
• Particle Dispersion Augmentors - These rigs also increase the strength of your jammers
• Particle Dispersion Projectors - These rigs increase the range of your jammers

Drones:

Drones can be very effective on ships which do not have ECM bonuses

• Hornet EC-300 - Light drone - Has a strength of 1 for all sensor types
• Vespa EC-600 - Medium drone - Has a strength of 1.5 for all sensor types
• Wasp EC-900 - Heavy drone - Has a strength of 2 for all sensor types

It is a tough decision to choose between having many multispectrals or a variety of race specific jammers. If you know the type of fight you are heading towards you can make a tactical decision (or the fleet commander might make this decision before you head out).

• If you plan on entering fights which a variety of ships then you should fit Racial jammers. This will allow the ECM pilot to target a few ships and have a high chance of locking them all down.
• If you plan on fighting individuals (small fights) then ECM will be more affective with Multispectral jammers since they could activate more than one on the single targets and have a higher chance of locking them down.
• If you plan on fighting a known individual you can have your pilots fit multiple jammers which match the type of your target.

Using your ECM Modules

The race specific modules are not named such that it's obvious what race of ships it is effective against. I have compiled a series of images to help you make a quick decision when in the heat of battle. Remember that each race of ship has the same colour background.

Your Target Ship	Which Racial Jammer to use
150px Amarr	150px a.k.a "White noise"
150px Caldari	150px a.k.a "Spatial Destablizer"
150px Gallente	150px a.k.a "Ion Field"
150px Minmatar	150px a.k.a "Phase Inverter"

If you can remember these colour match ups then you will remember exactly which module to activate on a ship you are targeting. If you don't think you will remember this match up you should use Multispectral ECM modules so you never have to remember.

Skills to improve ECM

There are a few skills which will improve your abilities as an ECM pilot:

• Signal Dispersion - Increases your jam strength by 5% per level. This skill requires Engineering 5. If you have decided that you really enjoy being an EWAR pilot this is a great skill to work towards (But it certainly isn't required to have fun in fleets).
• Long Distance Jamming - Increases the range of your ECM modules by 10% per level. Requires Electronics 4. Another great skill to work towards if you enjoy EWAR.
• Electronic Warfare - Required to use ECM mods, reduces cap usage by 5% per level.
• Frequency Modulation - Increases the falloff distance (this will be explained later) of your ECM mods.

Suggest ship fitting for fleets

In University fleets you will usually want to fly a Cruiser class as an EWAR pilot (though this isn't a concrete rule). So in this section I will give a suggested fit for a Black bird (Cruiser class ECM boat). If you think ECM sounds awesome you can always ask in the E-Uni chat channel for help fitting an ECM frigate to have some fun.

Black bird

High slots:

Anything you want really, not required. Weapons are optional. Energy neutralizers can be a great addtion.

Mid slots(6):

4 ECM modules - Either 4 multispectrals or 1 of each racial ECM modules

Sensor booster I/II - This will allow you to lock targets faster and start jamming them

Micro warp drive - MWD greatly increases effectiveness in PVP, allows you to get to your optimal/safe range quickly and also get in range of targets quickly.

Low slots(2):

2x Signal Distortion Amplifier

or

1x Signal Distortion Amplifier

1x 1600mm armor plate (requires hull upgrades 3) - This setup may require you to have no guns on your ship but it will almost double the effective health points of your Blackbird. Some people believe it is worth taking the small hit on ECM strength to have this increased survivability

Remember to set your orbit range correctly with regards to the types of ECM modules you are using:

• Multispectral modules have an optimal around 18km to 40km depending on skills with a falloff of 20-30km
• Racial modules have an optimal around 40km -> 50km depending on skills with a falloff of 40-50km

This is radically affected by your cruiser skill (most ships will modify optimal range with ship skill)

How does ECM work?

Every ship in the game has a base sensor strength and this sensor is always of a known type(Gravimetric, Ladar, Radar, Magenetometric). Your chance to jam a target is based on this equation:

Chance to Jam = ( Your ECM Strength / Targets Sensor Strength ) * 100%

And if you use multiple jammers:

Chance to Jam = (1 -(1 - Your ECM Strength / Targets Sensor Strength ) ^ The number of jammers of this strength)*100%

(the little ^ symbol means "to the power of")

So let's use that equation in an example:

Scenario 1

Say your fleet is flying around and you come across a scary Caldari Raven. You throw on your sensor booster and get a target lock on him really fast. You are lucky (or unlucky!!) that this Raven is within 50km and inside your optimal range of your ECM modules. You seem the Raven start to get a target lock on you (and you begin to sweat a little)

You make a quick decision:

150px Caldari

150px Gravimetric jammer

What are your chances that you won't get turned into a fine mist? Let's assume that the Raven has no mods/skills that increase his sensor strength and the Raven has 22 point Gravimetric sensor strength. Let's assume you are flying the Blackbird above with 2 distortion amplifiers and 0 skills to increase your jamming strength (and you also only have Caldari Cruisers II (you are a noob)) and you have all tech 1 meta 1 jammer modules.

First let's calculate your jammer strength: The "ECM - Spatial Destablizer I" has a Gravimetric strength of 3 This will be improved by all the modules which increase it by percents.

• Caldari Cruiser II -> 30% ECM jammer strength for a Blackbird which will add : 0.9 strength
• Signal Distortion Amplifier I(2 of them) -> 10% ECM jammer strength : 0.3 strength

So in total we will have 4.2 jammer strength (uh oh)

Chance to jam = (4.2 / 22) * 100% Chance to jam = ~ 19%

So you have a small chance to survive and you will probably be turned into goo! Oh well.. for the fun of it let us work out the chance of the NON-racial jammers on him (hey, everything little bit helps right?)

Lets assume you have 1 of each racial jammer. Their jamming strength when miss matched with the target is 1. With our modifiers that gives us a strength of 1.4 jamming strength

Chance to jam = (1.4/22) * 100% Chance to jam = ~ 6%

So that is pretty bad, but it is still something!

Scenario 2

Now lets assume we run into the same Raven but this time we are rolling with 4 Multispectral jammers. We get him targeted and we throw all of our jammers at once.

Ok, the meta 1 Multispectral has a jammer strenght of: 2 With all of our bonuses the strength comes up to: 2.8

Chance to Jam = (1 -(1 - 2.8 / 22 ) ^ 4)*100% Chance to Jam = ~ 42% or ~13% per module

Ok this is a little better...

Scenario 3

Ok now let's assume we were going to hunt a known target, a raven! We are so sure this is the only thing we will run into that we put 4 racial jammers on our Black bird and let out an evil giggle.

We found above that using a racial jammer gives us a gravimetric strength of 4.2 (per module)

Chance to Jam = (1 -(1 - 4.2 / 22 ) ^ 4)*100% Chance to Jam = ~ 57%

So you can see you have a slight advantage when you know your target type and fit appropriately. But this advantage isn't that great and its generally accepted to fit rainbow (one of each racial) or multispecs.

Scenario 4

Ok let's assume you have a little bit of money and can afford to use meta 4 jamming modules (these will generally cost 500,000 isk per module) and you can fit 2 Medium Particle Dispersion Augmentors (rigs (not allowed on cruisers in E-uni fleet ops)) at 900,000 isk each.

let's assume you fit a rainbow fit (one of each racial jammer) and you came up against the same Raven.

Your new shiny racial jammer has a base strength of 6.78 Caldari Cruiser II -> 30%

Signal Distortion Amplifier x 2 -> 10%

Medium Particle Dispersion Augmentor x2 -> 20% (10% per module)

This leads to a massive 10.84 strength jam.

Chance to jam = ( 10.84 / 22 ) * 100% Chance to jam = 49% with a single module

You can do the maths to work out how well 4x multi specs would work in this setup.

Falloff and Optimal range

The above scenarios are correct when your target is between you and your optimal range. When you target is past this optimal range it affects the chance that you will jam them. This works much in the same way weapons fall off ranges work.

• When your target is at optimal you will get the above chances.
• When your target is at optimal + falloff you have a 50% chance to have the above chances
• When your target is at optimal + 2 x falloff you have a 0% chance of jamming them

Here is an example: let's assume your ECM module has a 50km range and has a 40km falloff. When your target is within optimal range you have a 20% chance to jam him per cycle of your modules.

• If your target is 50km away you will have a 20% chance to jam him
• If your target is 90km away (50km + 40km) you will now have 10% chance to jam him (50% of 20%)
• If your target is 130km away (50km + 40km + 40km) you now have a 0% chance to jam him

Without any skills in targeting a Black Bird has a 75km targeting range and 112.5km with a targeting script in your sensor booster. So the rule of thumb for a new player should be: If you can target them, try to jam them!!

Advanced ECM tactics

Never activate all of your ECM on a target at the same time

If you have some time (you are not about to die) you can gain a large advantage if you do not active all of your ECM modules on a target.

Let's assume there are 2 targets attacking you and your friends. Immediately you target both of them and decide you will turn on 2 multispectral jammers for each. One of the targets gets lucky and avoids both of the jams and the other target gets jammed from your first ECM module. The lucky enemy (that didn't get jammed) then happily targets you and blows you up! woops.

Now that is an unpleasant scenario we might have avoided.

This time we decide to turn on 1 module per target. Target 1 is lucky and doesnt get jammed Target 2 is unlucky and we jam them

At this point we have 2 more modules to work with. We attempt to jam target number 2 with another module and he is AGAIN lucky (just like in the first example) We finally turn a third module onto target 2 and this time we jam him and live to fight another day!

You can see with this example that it is in your best interest to use as little number of jammers on your targets until you get an actual jam. Remember that the activation time of ECM modules is 20 seconds, which is the same length of time that the jam will last.

Jamming during docking games

Sometimes it is unwise to jam someone who is trying to play docking games with you. To win at docking games you sometimes need to rely on the fact that when your target shoots something he cannot dock for 30 seconds (giving you time to kill him). If you happen to get a jam off on a person playing docking games he has 20 seconds where he cannot target anyone and thus is getting closer to being able to dock. You generally want someone playing docking games to be trying to shoot someone.