PortolanBearings Network · FreeElectronic Warfare (EW)
Electronic Warfare (EW) is the mission of attacking, protecting, and supporting operations in the electromagnetic spectrum — jamming adversary communications and sensors, protecting friendly systems from adversary jamming and cyber-EM effects, and managing the spectrum for own-force use. Modern EW combines airborne pods (Next-Generation Jammer, EPAWSS), ground-based systems (Silent Crow), space-based ELINT, and increasingly software- defined radios that can adapt in flight. Peer-adversary EW is documented in Ukraine, the Red Sea, and the Indo-Pacific, jamming GPS, disrupting comms, and denying precision-guided munitions their sensor picture.
- 1DetectSense adversary emissions across the spectrum.
- 2IdentifyClassify emitter type, purpose, location.
- 3AssessWeigh friendly-force impact of engagement.
- 4AttackJam, spoof, or exploit adversary systems.
- 5ProtectHarden friendly comms + sensors from reciprocal EW.
The electromagnetic spectrum is the connective tissue of every modern military system — GPS, radios, radars, drone control links, satellite comms, cellular. Whoever controls the spectrum in a fight controls whether the other side can shoot, see, talk, or navigate. Ukraine has been a decade of EW compression in three years: adversary drone jamming forces attackers to switch guidance mid-flight, GPS spoofing sends munitions off target, and both sides constantly reconfigure their spectrum posture to preserve their own use while denying the enemy's.