What is Electronic Warfare and Electronic-warfare aircraft – How it works

January 20, 2019 Videos 3,642 Views

The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponent the advantage of, and ensure friendly unimpeded access to, the EM spectrum. EW can be applied from air, sea, land, and/or space by manned and unmanned systems, and can target humans, communication, radar, or other assets (military and civilian).

Electronic Warfare (EW) represents the ability to use the electromagnetic spectrum—signals such as radio, infrared or radar—to sense, protect, and communicate. At the same time, it can be used to deny adversaries the ability to either disrupt or use these signals.

EW is divided into three (3) major areas:

Electronic Attack: Disrupt, deny, degrade, destroy, or deceive
Electronic Protection: Preventing a receiver from being jammed or deceived
Electronic Support: Sensing of the electromagnetic spectrum

Electronic-warfare aircraft

An electronic-warfare aircraft is a military aircraft equipped for electronic warfare (EW), that is, degrading the effectiveness of enemy radar and radio systems by using radar jamming and deception methods.

In 1943, British Avro Lancaster aircraft were equipped with chaff in order to blind enemy air defence radars. They were supplemented by specially-equipped aircraft flown by No. 100 Group RAF, which operated modified Halifaxes, Liberators and Fortresses carrying various jammers such as Carpet, Airborne Cigar, Mandrel, Jostle, and Piperack.

The Boeing EA-18G Growler is not the average warplane. While most military aircraft were built to attack enemies physically, the Growler was created for a very different kind of warfare.