Electronic Warfare, some thoughts...

Nikolai Tesla had some very interesting ideas about harnessing Electricity and plasma around the turn of the century and his plans included the idea that Electricity could be used as a weapon over great distances. Most of his labors never got off the ground but he laid the groundwork for some very interesting things to come along later. He had hardware that did some very strange things that to this day are not fully understood. Time marched on but many of Tesla's principle ideas about energy, electricity, and radio are things we take for granted today.

World War two was a turning point for how wars are fought. Many things were learned in aviation, weapon design, and tactics, which would become part of all nations' future plans to make war. One of the principle weapons to come out of WWII was of course the radar. I won't go into huge detail here on radar theory as most folks reading this have a basic understanding about how it works. Simply put an electromagnetic wave is sent out from a transmitter and anything it hits will give a reflection wave back towards the transmitter. This wave coming back can be picked up by a receiver antenna and some things about its characteristics can tell you where the target reflecting it is located. All weather warfare against many kinds of targets becomes possible. Ships, planes, tanks, buildings etc. Put an electronic brain on a warhead able to home on this reflected energy and you have a very sophisticated way to nail someone when you can't see them! Over time the sophistication of weapons used in EW has become mind boggling.

In its infancy EW was very much a trial and error proposition. The Cold war perpetuated a constant one upsmanship in weapons at an astonishing rate. During Viet Nam it became obvious that without EW capabilities combatants became severely handicapped in any conflict. In more modern times it comes with the territory and even the third world countries have what could be considered some very complicated weapons systems compared to just a few years ago.

EW is a part of all warfare planning. There is not one aspect of combat that is not affected by EW. The modern battlefield is swarming with EW gear. Data-links, jammers, radars, radios, computers, all play a major part in the ability to wage war. From a pilots standpoint the arena shrinks a bit though, and we will look at some areas where airplane drivers need to pay a bit more attention than the guys on the ground or driving ships.

Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs) and Anti Aircraft (AAA)

One of the more obvious threats to an aircraft is the SAM. SAM's are very lethal and are designed to be deployed in a layered defense so as to deny total use of an area of airspace. It might be a battlefield or an airbase, or maybe a task group at sea. The principle is the same though. Long range radars provide early warning. Long range SAMs are used for the strategic targets traditionally not as maneuverable. Closer in the more maneuverable missiles are deployed, usually with significantly shorter range. Very close in are the shoulder fired and short range point defense SAMs and Anti Aircraft artillery (AAA). AAA can be very deadly if not honored. Particularly radar directed AAA will ruin your day if you're not careful.

Surviving this gauntlet is not as hard as one might think. Using tactics and flight patterns can defeat most of the threat. Those parts of the threat that can't be negated by flying low or very fast we can jam. Jamming involves the use of electromagnetic energy to overwhelm the radars or to spoof the missiles, confusing their guidance and fuzing systems. Dedicated jamming aircraft fly at safe distances using high power to provide cover or windows of opportunity to the aircraft that must fly through the SAM umbrella. Maybe all that has to happen is to deny the radar operators good targeting for a few moments while the aircraft is in a vulnerable position delivering ordnance. Traditionally low altitude and use of terrain has been the method of choice, but more and more systems have the capability to nail you right down in the weeds so its important to know what threats you might encounter on a mission. Intelligence is paramount and the more real time it can be the better, especially with more mobile SAM systems. Another tool to negate the threat is an onboard jammer, usually not as powerful as those carried by dedicated aircraft, but useful in close in last ditch defense. Among these also are towed decoys which attempt to confuse the missile tracking and fuzing systems.

Air to Air Missiles

A similar problem is encountered with an airborne threat carrying air to air missiles. Avoiding them all together is the ideal but not always practical tactic. If we can't avoid them then maybe we can deny the use of the radar to track a target so he can launch a missile. Again dedicated jammers can overpower the aircrafts radar or ability to track targets. On board our own aircraft we utilize the same techniques to jam opponents radars and defeat fuzing of weapons close enough for us to incur damage. On board systems tend to give away our position once they are used in an active role which makes life tougher for us but may save the bacon so we can complete our mission. Use them only when absolutely necessary! Air launched decoys are also a viable option as long as we have the assets to spare. Dedicated flights show up just prior to the strike to launch gliding decoys designed to mimic fighter sized radar cross sections and hopefully draw attention away from the strike group. Another tactic would be to use a flight or decoys as a feint with the same results. Decoys also work well against ground targets defended by SAM's.

Anti Radiation Missiles

Now is a good time to talk about ARM's. Since the Viet Nam war the capability has existed to strike back at most if not all radar emitting stations on the ground in a really clever way. Designing a seeker head to put on a missile designed to home on radar energy was nothing short of genius! The missile carries a warhead and works just like any air to air missile, only now it is homing on the emitted energy rather than reflected waves. It's not hard to defeat, but you have to know its coming. All one has to do is to turn off the radar for a moment and the signal is lost and the missile goes stupid. The important point here is that the operator had TURN OFF his radar not allowing targeting or shooting any missiles! Now it gets even better....what if we put a computer in the missile with the ability to remember latitude and longitude plus elevation and antenna height??? Guess what, bad guy turns off his emitters but still gets smacked due to the new capabilities for remembering the position. It's a great weapon, but its very tricky to make all the pieces fall into place for a kill. All we really need it for though is to deny the bad guys the ability to target us for those few minutes when we will be vulnerable over a given target. Create this window over a target and the missile has done its job.

There are many parts to the Electronic warfare picture. Communication jamming and the ability to defeat it are also huge undertakings. Denying the enemy the use of conventional comms on the battlefield can be very crippling. The same holds true for airborne assets and it is something that must be expected in an all out war with a sophisticated foe. During my time flying Navy aircraft we practiced many of our missions without using radio at all for this very reason. Technology is great but in the heat of battle and the fog of war, many things you take for granted won't be available. The side that can successfully deny the opponent the use of the electromagnetic spectrum will have a huge leg up in any conflict. Knowing some of the tactics and pitfalls can go a long way to negating this threat, but its something that has to be planned for on every mission. Knowing the threat and its capabilities helps to soften this edge. Good intelligence, target study, and effective training are critical to enhancing the strike pilot's success.

The future holds some very promising and exciting developments. I was reading Aviation Week and space Technology magazine this week and inside was an article showing the proposal to fit a Laser to the F35. Very interesting and apparently practical idea for medium range according to the article. Also discussed was the possibility of plasma and directed energy weapons. Starting to sound a whole lot like Buck Rogers!

As I said earlier I have only scratched the surface and each one of these parts can and do take up volumes in many great publications. If you're interested in further reading there are many places you can find on the web to fulfill your quest for knowledge. Or you can join the Navy or Air force and get a graduate level degree in all of this! I hope you enjoyed this short primer on EW, I enjoyed writing it!

Jim "Hornit" Campisi