28 April 2015

Deft Jam: Electronic Warfare Is The Face Of Future Combat


Among the five basic forces that shape our universe, electromagnetism is by far the most malleable in the hands of humans. In fact, civilization as we know it today would be impossible without the myriad uses of electricity that have appeared since Samuel Morse sent his first telegraph message in 1844. But history shows that humans will fight over anything that confers power, and electromagnetism is proving to be no exception. So the electromagnetic spectrum has become a warfighting domain, a place where invisible enemies maneuver for advantage.

Electronic warfare, as this cat-and-mouse game is called, isn’t something that military practitioners like to talk about in public. Almost everything about the subject is secret. Companies such as BAE Systems and Raytheon make billions of dollars every year equipping warfighters with the tools they need to dominate the spectrum, and yet seldom disclose details about what they’re doing. For instance, BAE developed the agile electronic warfare suite on the F-35 fighter, likely to be the most widely used tactical aircraft in the world through mid-century. Good luck getting hard information about how the company designed it, or what it can do.

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