Greetings, and here we are with my first textual spillage of absolutely useless information about Electronics Warfare and how it's employed in Naval/Maritime warfare.

 

So what is Electronics Warfare (EW)? I'll start by telling you what is isn't; It's not shooting missiles, guns or torpedoes, if you want skin on skin contact with targets and ordnance, I suggest going down the passageway and talking to those Fire Control guys.

 

EW is often the red-headed stepchild of warfare in general, especially in Naval Warfare, as the benefit of EW Technicians is pretty much discounted unless the ship is staring down several incoming Anti-Shipping Cruise Missiles (ASCMs) and my "boys" down in the Fire Control shop are wetting their pants because AEGIS has once again shown them how spectacularly it can let them down. ;-) Or the Operations Specialists need someone to clean passageways for them the night before pulling into a foreign port. (Generally, the latter case is the most common.)

 

Electronics Warfare by definition 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. (Wikipedia Definition) It is commonly divided into three sub-categories, Electronic Support (ES), Electronic Attack (EA), and Electronic Protect (EP), formerly known as ESM, ECM, and ECCM respectively.

 

ES is the methods and technolgy used to exploit the enemy's use of the Electromagnetic Spectrum to detect, identify, locate, track and ultimately see to the enemy's untimely demise. Information gathered while conducting ES operations is typically referred to as Electronics Intelligence (ELINT) and falls under the broader scope of Signals Intelligence or SIGINT.

 

Some fairly simple examples of ES in the Maritime domain are:

 

- Submarines lingering off a hostile shore collecting electronic signals for processing

- Surface ships detecting approaching aircraft by intercepting emissions from the aircraft radars.

- Recon aircraft detecting the presence of enemy ships from communications intercept or radar signal intercepts.

 

EA is the means by which a military force uses the Electromagnetic Spectrum to degrade or deny their adversary the use of the same. Effectively, making it more difficult for the enemy to conduct Electronic Support operations.

 

Electronic attack can be broken down into two sub categories; Electronic and Mechanical.

 

Mechanical EA is the use of physical objects such as Chaff or expendable decoys to deceive or otherwise negate the enemy's efforts to engage friendly forces. Where Electronic EA is the use on non-physical objects such as RF Radiation (i.e. jamming or meaconing) to negate enemy efforts to attack.

 

Some fairly simple examples of EA in the Maritime domain are:

 

- Electronic Warfare aircraft executing RF Jamming to deny the enemy the ability to see or detect the composition and posture of a task force or incoming air strike.

- Surface ships launching chaff to confuse seekers on incoming missiles.

- Engaging enemy radar sites with Anti-Radiation Missiles (ARMs) such as AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile)

 

Electronic Protect is interesting as it consists of a combination of both ES and EA to be successful, by definition is the means and technology used to ensure friendly use of the electromagnetic spectrum in the presence of enemy EA operations. Essentially, making sure my task force can still detect an incoming thread despite the enemy's best efforts to conceal their presence.

 

Some fairly simple examples of EP in the Maritime domain are:

 

- Increasing the power output of an air search radar to "burnthrough" enemy jamming.

- Frequency shifting of radar and comm signals to minimize the effect of enemy jamming.

- Chaff discrimination software in the seekers of ASCMs.

 

So that is a very simple (perhaps oversimplified) description of Electronic Warfare. Please feel free to comment or ask questions, I'll do my best to answer any questions if I can. As you may imagine some information is still classified and likely will be for the forseeable future, so there will be instances where I can not divulge information. Suggestions on future topics and discussions are welcome, please feel free to PM me if you have an idea for discussion.

 

This information wouldn't have a heck of alot of credibility if I didn't tell you anything about myself now would it? Alrighty then, I'm Sean and about 2 years ago I departed Uncle Sam's Navy after 7 years as an Electronics Warfare Technician or EW and 3 years as a Cryptologic Technician (Technical) or CTT. My final rank at discharge was as a Petty Officer First Class, I qualified as an Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist, and served aboard two ships as ship's company, and several others on temporary assignments. My 2 regular assignments were to the USS Tortuga (LSD-46), a Whidbey Island-class amphibious landing dock, and as part of the commissioning crew of the USS Bulkeley (DDG-84) an Arleigh Burke-class (Flight IIA) AEGIS guided missile destroyer, as well as several special assignments.

Welcome, Sean. Its been good to meet and chat with you on IRC, and we're happy to have you aboard.