Carpet was an early

radar jamming Radar jamming and deception is a form of electronic countermeasures (ECMs) that intentionally sends out radio frequency signals to interfere with the operation of radar by saturating its receiver with noise or false information. Concepts that blan ...

apparatus developed by the Allies in 1942. It was installed on strategic bombers like the

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during ...

from late 1943 and used alongside

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent ma ...

to defeat German gun-laying radar. By the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, two were installed in most

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces S ...

bombers. The Würzburg radar was one of the most common in German use, and directed German

flak Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-bas ...

batteries, so the British spent considerable effort countering the system during the war. In February 1942, a Würzburg-A system at Bruneval on the coast of France was captured by British Paratroopers in

Operation Biting Operation Biting, also known as the Bruneval Raid, was a British Combined Operations (United Kingdom), Combined Operations Raid (military), raid on a German coastal radar installation at Bruneval in northern France, during the Second World War, ...

. Several key components were returned to the UK, which allowed the operational parameters of the system to be accurately determined. This led to the modification of existing transmitter systems to produce the "Carpet" system that broadcast noise on the frequencies used by particular Würzburg systems. Several updated versions of Carpet were introduced; Carpet II was the primary UK version while Carpet III (also known as the APT-2 Carpet) was its US-built counterpart. The system could be tuned for both spot jamming and

barrage jamming Barrage jamming is an electronic warfare technique that attempts to blind (" jam") radar systems by filling the display with noise, rendering the broadcaster's ''blip'' invisible on the display, and often those in the nearby area as well. "Barr ...

. Carpet worked as part of a system of radar countermeasures. ''Mandrel'' and ''Dina'' jammed early warning radar, screening bombers as they formed up. Leading planes dispensed ''Window'' to cloak the rest of the formation. ''Carpet'' (both set to preset frequencies, or used with the ''Blinker'' system for spot jamming) then helped protect the leading planes, as well as defeating German Window-countermeasures by forcing them to constantly retune their radar systems. The result was a serious degradation of German air defense capabilities, especially during blind bombing conditions.

References

External links

* Video on Carpe

* Article on EC

{{WWII-stub Military equipment introduced from 1940 to 1944 Military technology Penetration aids Weapons countermeasures World War II Allied electronics World War II British electronics