| “ | Prepared for signal distortion. - ECM Tank leaving the War Factory |
” |
China developed the E.C.M. (Electronic Counter Measures) Tank to support its attacking tank legions. It utilizes a soft-kill jammer designed to deflect incoming projectiles in a small radius around the vehicle.
Background[]
| “ | Missiles won't get through. - ECM Tank |
” |
This vehicle-based suite of electronic countermeasures protects advancing Chinese columns. A multi-frequency jammer effectively disrupts guided missile and rocket attacks, which can cause them to miss their targets. Its directed beam can also disable the electronics of vehicle units.[1]
Abilities[]
| “ | They won't know what happened! - ECM Tank disabling a vehicle |
” |
| Disable Vehicle |  |
The ECM focuses its energy into a jamming beam to deactivate another vehicle, deactivating the missile deflection as long as it's active. |
Game unit[]
Strategy[]
| “ | Corrupt their communications! - ECM Tank |
” |
To disable vehicles, the ECM tank had to fire a focused jamming beam from a stationary position. If it lost its focus, the targeted enemy unit would re-activate. Therefore the ECM tank was purely an assistant in the elimination of hostiles. Having friendly units close to the tank was also a bad idea when the tank directed missiles away, as the missiles were still live and capable of damage friendlies. It was however, a frustrating task for GLA commanders attempting to use Rocket Buggies against them, especially against base defense with ECM tanks loitering near them. Parking an ECM tank directly next to a Gatling Cannon or a Bunker is an effective strategy for protecting base defenses against missile threats.
Despite lacking offensive weapons, the ECM Tank is still more than capable of crushing infantry and holding off against a sole vehicle with its jammer.
Counters[]
| “ | Jam their frequencies! - ECM Tank attacking |
” |
Unfortunately, the ECM tank needed to focus all of its power when jamming a vehicle, so when doing so missiles that would normally be disrupted would be able to continue as normal, allowing missile armed infantry to engage the tank.
While it could escape small arms fire, if enemy tanks cornered one they could quickly finish it off. The ECM tank also had issues with disabling Overlord or Emperor tanks, as the sheer size of the vehicles made them very hard for a single ECM to disable, often taking a much longer time than the ECM could survive under fire from such tanks without support. Also if a vehicle such as a Battle Bus or a Humvee was loaded down with infantry, the infantry could still fire from their ports.
Artillery that fired projectiles that were not missile based, such as those from the Inferno Cannon also presented an issue, as they could not be deflected by the tank's jammer suite.
Finally, missiles that were diverted by the jamming field could still strike nearby friendly units inadvertently.
Selected Quotes[]
| “ | Prepared for signal distortion. - When emerging from the War Factory |
” |
| “ | Frequency jammers on standby. - When selected |
” |
| “ | ECM Tank. - When selected |
” |
| “ | Missiles won't get through. - When selected |
” |
| “ | Emission rate steady. - When selected |
” |
| “ | Noise level set. - When moving |
” |
| “ | Inputting coordinates. - When moving |
” |
| “ | Triangulation complete. - When moving |
” |
| “ | Resetting navigation systems. - When moving |
” |
| “ | Enabling power train. - When moving |
” |
| “ | Disabling target! - When ordered to disable enemy vehicle |
” |
| “ | Corrupt their communications! - When ordered to disable enemy vehicle |
” |
| “ | They won't know what happened! - When ordered to disable enemy vehicle |
” |
| “ | Shut their systems down! - When ordered to disable enemy vehicle |
” |
| “ | Jam their frequencies! - When ordered to disable enemy vehicle |
” |
See also[]
- Microwave Tank - USA equivalent
Trivia[]
- The ECM Tank apparently had a jammer which disabled all enemy drones near itself. It was probably removed because the developers noticed it causes serious issues with friendly fire, which made the effect backfire.
- Oddly enough, despite being unguided rockets in real life the ECM Tank can deflect "missiles" fired by GLA RPG Troopers.
- In rare cases, the game would glitch and a vehicle shut down by an ECM tank would remain disabled after the tank had either switched targets or been destroyed, effectively making it a sitting duck. However, infantry units within transport vehicles such as the Humvee, Battle Bus, and General Fai's Assault Troop Transport could still fire upon nearby threats.
References[]
- ↑ Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour manual. Los Angeles, California: Electronic Arts Los Angeles, 2003.
 Tanks | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||