MK1A EW is supposed to work in conjunction with the RWR and radar, that's the whole fuss is about. The new RWR receivers are used for locating emitters and cue the jammer.
The jammer DARE developed for Su-30MKI does the same thing, instead of wasting a pylon just to receive RF (SAP518), they use DR118 to receive and on the wingtips they mount two ASPJ pods covering different bands.
