SEAD, or Suppression of Enemy Air Defences operations are military actions to suppress enemy surface-based air defences (SAMs and AAA) primarily in, but not limited to, the first hours of an attack.

The weapons most often associated with the mission are Anti Radiation Missiles (ARMs) such as the American HARM and British ALARM. However an SEAD mission can be anything which damages or destroys a component of an air defence system, for example a Paveway LGB is not a SEAD-specific munition but when used to destroy a radar antenna it achieves the objective of Suppression of Enemy Air Defence.

Possibly the most effective type of unguided ('dumb') weapon used during SEAD strikes are cluster bombs because of the fact that many SAM sites are dispersed over a fairly wide area in order to increase the difficulty of inflicting serious damage on the battery and the relative 'softness' of the targets (missile launchers/TELs, exposed radars, etc.). In particular the US JSOW is an effective weapon for attacking SAM sites due to its fairly long standoff range which allows the lauching aircraft to avoid being threatened by all but the longest range missiles and its relatively large area of destruction against soft targets.

External links

• US Department of Defense definition
• NATO definition
• Description of SEAD environment over Kosovo
• Discussion of differing opinions on future threats to western aircraft