Protecting and controlling the electromagnetic spectrum is a vital part of national defense, which many important tactical decisions rely on. The spectrum, however, has increasingly become more polluted and congested, making it more difficult to manage and defend.
To ensure opponents do not have access to important information or can interfere with national defense through electromagnetic attacks, the military utilizes electronic warfare, including employing electronic countermeasure techniques such as wireless device detection. These techniques are used to disrupt or deceive an enemy’s system, including their radar, communication, or navigation.
What is Electronic Warfare?
The electromagnetic spectrum has been relied upon by the military since the first radio waves were used to communicate during battles over 100 years ago. It has since grown into a complex and essential tool to sense and attack enemies, while protecting sensitive targets and information.
Electronic warfare is the strategic use of this spectrum, as well as any related tactics, against an enemy in military conflict. Each branch of the military has its own department and procedures of electronic warfare, but there are three main divisions:
Electronic Attack (EA)
Electronic attack is also known as electronic countermeasures, or ECM. It is the offensive use of electromagnetic energy weapons to attack enemies. The purpose is to neutralize or destroy an enemy’s communications capabilities. This can be as simple as using a frequency jammer or more deadly measures such as physically attacking an enemy broadcasting station.
Electronic Protection (EP)
Electronic protection is used to counter an electronic attack and can be referred to as electronic counter-countermeasure. The point of electronic protection is to protect against the effects of an electronic attack from an enemy or other adversary. Examples of EP include spread spectrum technologies, restricted frequency lists, and stealth technology.
Electronic Support (ES)
The third division of electronic warfare is electronic support which is used to intercept, locate, identify, and detect electromagnetic energy. ES is the gathering of intelligence that will then be used to create informed decisions to utilize the tactics of EA and EP.
What is an Electronic Countermeasure?
One of the main branches of electronic warfare is electronic attack, which involves the use of electronic countermeasure techniques. An electronic countermeasure is any type of technique or tool that can be used to interrupt radar and communication systems of an enemy. It lessens the effectiveness of an enemy’s systems, preventing them from communicating or attacking.
Countermeasure techniques can be both defensive and offensive to protect assets from enemies and play a crucial role in modern warfare. One of the most common countermeasure techniques is to hide an aircraft from enemy radar using what is called a chaff to distort radar and navigation signals.
While today’s technology has evolved, creating more sophisticated tactics for electronic countermeasures, such as direct energy weapons, the basic techniques remain the same: jamming, stealth, spoofing, and decoys.
Importance of Electronic Countermeasure Technology
Electronic countermeasure, or ECM, is an important part of modern warfare and surveillance technology. The different techniques that are used play a vital role in protecting the military and important assets from enemy threats, including deadly attacks. By using electronic countermeasures, the military is able to make it more difficult for enemies to communicate, locate, and coordinate their efforts.
Beyond protecting our military forces from attacks, electronic countermeasures can be used to protect friendly forces and assets from detection. By jamming signals and using stealth measures, such as identifying and detecting RF signals, aircrafts are able to reach their goals, with a reduced risk of attack. This allows the military to gather intelligence and reconnaissance information without being detected. The information gathered can help determine the outcome of a situation.
Electronic countermeasure is a critical part of modern warfare, along with the other branches of electronic warfare, allowing the military to gather information and protect valuable targets. As technology advances, electronic countermeasures will not only be even more important, but will need to become more evolved and advanced.
Electronic Countermeasure Types
There are five main types of electronic countermeasure types, which range from jamming and decoys to spoofing and directed energy weapons. All have their specific applications that make them more effective in certain military security situations.
Jamming
Jamming is an electronic countermeasure that involves transmitting radio waves to block enemy communications. This countermeasure can be used against many different electronic systems, including navigation systems and radar communications. Jamming blocks an enemy’s ability to communicate or even see where their target is. This technique has been used as one of the first lines of electronic countermeasures in the past, but modern technology makes it increasingly more difficult to jam communications effectively.
There are several types of electronic jamming that are used in electronic countermeasures:
Noise jamming
Also known as denial jamming, noise jamming is when a jammer transmits an interference signal or white noise towards an enemy radar. Noise jamming is used to delay or deny a target detection and helps to mask the presence of targets. The effectiveness of noise jamming is dependent on several factors including the power of the radio, the quality of the noise signal, and the jamming-to-signal ratio.
Spot Jamming
If a specific radar is known, spot jamming can be used to control the bandwidth of the frequencies. Spot jamming is when all of the power output of a jammer is concentrated in a narrow bandwidth. In order to be effective, though, it requires a panoramic receiver to match the exact jamming signal to the radar signal. Frequency hopping is used to overcome spot jamming as a form of electronic counter-countermeasure.
Barrage Jamming
In contrast to spot jamming is barrage jamming. With barrage jamming all of the power output of the hammer is spread over a bandwidth wider than that of the radar signal. It blinds the radar systems with noise and can be used to jam multiple radars at once.
Decoys
Decoys have been used since World War II as electronic countermeasures to create fake targets or electronic signals. They are an important tactic that prevents enemies from identifying their actual target.
For example, one of the first decoys employed as an electronic countermeasure technique were chaffs used to spread a cloud of small pieces of aluminum, plastic, or glass fiber over enemies’ target radar screens in order to block the signals.
Today, many types of decoy are used in the military as electronic countermeasure techniques, including jamming devices, flares, chaffs, and decoy missiles.
Flares are tubes that burn with a bright light and heat lure heat-seeking missiles away from their intended targets. Decoy missiles, on the other hand, are missiles that mimic the flight of a real missile which help to deceive enemy radar away from the real missiles. Both are used primarily in airborne warfare, where sight is limited and dependent on electron systems.
Spoofing
Along with preventing signals from occurring through jamming, another electronic countermeasure that is used is called spoofing. Spoofing is the transmission of a false signal to an enemy’s transmission in order to falsify information. The system or person receiving the information believes it to be true and makes decisions based upon the incorrect signal.
For example, if a spoofing signal is sent out to an enemy’s targeting system, it can make the targeting system miss their target or have a false target. The targeting system could essentially be tricked into hitting a different target than what it’s supposed to, including more damaging areas, such as critical buildings.
To prevent spoofing, counter countermeasures are taken, including signal filtering, signal authentication, and encryption, along with continuous monitoring to help identify false signals.
Stealth
Stealth as an electronic countermeasure involves specialized techniques and materials that help minimize an aircraft’s radar signature. This allows them to go virtually undetected against an enemy’s radar, allowing them to complete their missions and targets.
To create stealthy aircrafts or missiles, they employ a variety of features including radar-absorbing materials and angular shapes and surfaces which help to reflect radar energy. They also use other electronic countermeasure techniques including decoy and spoofing to further prevent being detected.
Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs)
Directed energy weapons are a more recent form of electronic countermeasure, developed in the 1960s, first as experimental prototypes, and then later in the 1980s as actual countermeasures.
They are devices that use focused energy to disrupt or deceive electronic communications. For example, high-powered microwaves can be used to interrupt a radar system, which would prevent an enemy from seeing incoming aircraft or other vehicles.
Directed energy weapons also play an important role in other forms of electronic warfare. The focused energy can be used to transmit important information, disrupt enemy targets, or even destroy targets. Some examples of DEWs are laser weapons and high-powered microwaves.
Electronic Countermeasure Technology and Cybersecurity
In addition to its military applications, electronic countermeasures can be used for cybersecurity to help defend against electronic attack and protect sensitive information. Techniques such as jamming, spoofing, and decoys can be used to protect networks from attackers.
One of the most common electronic countermeasures used in cybersecurity is jamming. This is done by transmitting a signal, just as with military electronic countermeasures, that blocks or interrupts the signal of an attacker. Jamming prevents an attacker from accessing a network or gathering important information.
Another tactic of electronic countermeasures in cybersecurity is using decoys, which involves false data being sent to an attacker. This information in reality would be useless and prevent the attacker from accessing actual important information.
As technology evolves, it’s important that electronic countermeasures do as well, both in military settings and in terms of cybersecurity in order to remain an essential strategy to protect valuable assets. With electronic countermeasures, the military is able to do X, Y, and Z, making these critical to safe operations and to protect sensitive data.
