Welcome to the MedLibrary.org Wikipedia Supplement on Electronic warfare -- Please Click to Return to Front Page

War Military history
Eras Prehistoric Ancient Medieval Gunpowder Industrial Modern Battlespace Air Information Land Sea Space Weapons Armor Artillery Biological Cavalry Chemical Electronic Infantry Nuclear Psychological Tactics Attrition Guerilla Maneuver Siege Total war Trench Strategy Economic Grand Operational Organization Formations Ranks Units Logistics Equipment Materiel Supply line Lists Battles Commanders Operations Sieges Theorists Wars War crimes Weapons Writers
War Portal   v • d • e

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (August 2008)

Electronic warfare (EW) is the use of the electromagnetic spectrum to effectively deny the use of this medium by an adversary, while optimizing its use by friendly forces. Electronic warfare has three main components: electronic support, electronic attack, and electronic protection.

Contents 1 Electronic support 2 Electronic attack 3 Electronic protection 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading

Electronic support

Main article: Electronic support

Electronic support (ES) is the passive use of the electromagnetic spectrum to gain intelligence about other parties on the battlefield in order to find, identify, locate and intercept potential threats or targets. This intelligence, known as ELINT, might be used directly by fire-control systems for artillery or air strike orders, for mobilization of friendly forces to a specific location or objective on the battlefield, or as the basis of electronic attack or electronic protection actions.

Because ES is conducted passively, it can be performed without the target observing any electronic activities. ES's strategic counterpart, SIGINT, is continuously performed by most of the world's countries in order to gain intelligence derived from other parties' electronic equipment and tactics.

An older term for ES is electronic support measures (ESM).

Electronic attack

Main article: Electronic attack

Electronic attack (EA) is the active or passive use of the electromagnetic spectrum to deny its use by an adversary.

• Active EA includes such activities as jamming, deception, active cancellation, and EMP use.

• Passive EA includes such activities as the use of chaff, balloons, radar reflectors, Faraday cages, winged decoys, and stealth.

EA operations can be detected by an adversary due to their active transmissions. Many modern EA techniques are considered to be highly classified.

An older term for EA is electronic countermeasures (ECM).

Electronic protection

Main article: Electronic protection

Electronic protection (EP) includes all activities related to making enemy EA activities less successful by means of protecting friendly personnel, facilities, equipment or objectives. EP can also be implemented to prevent friendly forces from being affected by their own EA.

• Active EP includes such activities as technical modifications to radio equipment (such as frequency-hopping spread spectrum).

• Passive EP includes such activities as the education of operators (enforcing strict discipline) and modified battlefield tactics or operations.

Older terms for EP include electronic protective measures (EPM) and electronic counter countermeasures (ECCM).

See also

• Association of Old Crows
• ELINT
• Electronic Warfare Officer
• Joint Functional Component Command for Network Warfare
• U.S. Marine Corps Radio Reconnaissance
• Electromagnetic bomb
• Battle of Latakia: the first use of EW in a naval battle
• Historical Electronics Museum
• Battle of the Beams
• USACEWP (United States Army Computer Network Operations-Electronic Warfare Proponents)

References

• Electronic Warfare in Operation Desert Storm
• EW Tutorial
• Association of Old Crows
• Electronic Warfare Jamming Systems
• Information Warfare , Information Operations and Electronic Attack on APA
• Electronic Warfare Products
• Space and Electronic Warefare Lexicon

Further reading

• Jon Latimer, Deception in War, London: John Murray, 2001
• David Adamy EW 101: A First Course in Electronic Warfare
• David Adamy EW 102: A Second Course in Electronic Warfare

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 10 October 2008, at 16:02.

Wikipedia Authorship and Review

Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.

Wikipedia Usage Guidelines

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Electronic warfare".

The URL for this specific entry is:

• http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Electronic_warfare

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.