I have heard the opinion from many MiG-29 pilots (from thirds persons, althrough trustworthy individuals) that they would love to exchange the crappy Gardeniya for more fuel...
S. Moroz also refers to Gardeniya as basically crap in his Su-24M book.
I can't find the reference to Gardeniya in Moroz's book. Perhaps you are referring to Landysh/Fasol/Mimoza of the Su-24MP, and the reason that more of these EW-specialized aircraft weren't produced?
It's interesting to read so many opinions that Gardenia is "crap," without any explanation. My impression is that rather, ECM in general is becoming "crap," with all the home-on-jam missiles around - witness the relegation of the B-1B, the retirement of the EF-111, the ability of EA-6B to operate against no newer threat than the SA-8... Simply, any modern radar will have the ability to switch its operating frequency faster than a modern ECM can follow. The new ECM thus isn't
bad, it just isn't operationally any more effective than the old ECM - and thus not worth the cost of upgrading. The only advantage Sorbtsiya ECM has over Gardeniya is "terrain-bounce" capability, grace of its steerable antenna - and even this is a sketchy technique that only works at low altitude, over reflective terrain, and against which the AIM-120 already has an operational ECCM software to defeat.
Thus it's not the Gardeniya, but rather ECM as a whole, that needs to go in the dustbin, to be replaced by stealth technology. The only reason ECM is allowed to continue to exist at all is to fight opponents armed with obsolete equipment - i.e., anyone the US is likely to fight - or because the country in question has no stealth technology of its own to field - i.e., everybody else. In this regard, it makes little sense to pick on Gardeniya in particular.
And since when is a MiG-29 pilot an expert on
ECM, of all things? I haven't even heard of one who knew what "loft" was.
