15 April, we celebrate the 155 anniversary of not even the creation of EW troops, but the first successful use of electronic warfare by Russian specialists. Although then even such a term as EW, did not exist.
But there was a Japanese squadron, which came to Port Arthur in order to continue the defeat of the Russian troops. And it was 15 on April 1904 of the year, two days after the tragic death of Admiral Makarov, the Japanese fleet began shelling Port Arthur.
But alas, the case was not crowned with success. The Japanese armored cruisers "Kasuga" and "Nissin", taking a successful position in the dead zone of the guns of the fortress and Russian ships, began to adjust the shooting of the main forces of the squadron by radio telegraph. The Japanese ships fired more than two hundred large-caliber projectiles along the harbor of Port Arthur, but they failed to make a single hit.
This was due to the work of the radio operators of the Golden Mount station and the battleship Pobeda, which were able to drown out the programs of Japanese cruisers with spark discharges.
Actually, this was the first recorded case of jamming communication systems. So began история EW troops.
It is clear that over the past 115 years from that time a lot of electrons have flowed. Although, if not very seriously, the principles are almost the same.
After all, the basis of electronic warfare is physics, and it has not changed very much since then. Why not say, of course, about the EW.
But the principles remain the same. And at the heart of all the work of the electronic warfare lies the principle of disruption of the electronic systems of the enemy.
In order to destroy something, it is something that must first be what? That's right, the enemy must be detected and classified.
It is radio intelligence - the first component of the EW. It is RTR that studies with all available means (and there are a lot of them) the area of application, identifies objects and systems, assigns them importance, and then “on a platter” passes on to those who will directly work on them.
Most modern EW stations combine search and suppression capabilities.
In general, in the suppression of the object today there is actually no romance, as some are forcing. Everything is simple: the essence of any suppression is the creation of a noise signal at the input of the receiver, more than a useful signal.
Moreover, it does not matter at all what kind of receiver it is: a radar of an aircraft or a cruise missile, a staff radio station, or a radio-projectile fighter. The essence will be the same - the violation of the system that receives information over the air.
This is active interference. And there are passive, by the way, no less effective. Clouds of foil strips of a certain length and width are capable of permanently paralyzing the work of the radar of the range under which the foil was cut. Considering that the lightest strip of aluminum foil can hang in the air for a very long time, the radar calculations will have to be inactive for a rather long time, waiting for the wind.
And corner reflectors should not be written off. Because just by the principle of “cheap and angry”, the corners are capable of perfectly fooling the head, especially if the opponent has no time for the proceedings. This applies primarily to aircraft.
EW complexes today are a fairly wide range of devices that are able to make the enemy in trouble, you just need to clearly understand what actions are needed.
"Murmansk" is capable of disrupting radio communications between the ships of the carrier strike group in the Atlantic, at a distance of 5-6 thousands of kilometers from its base. This is the only system in the world capable (with a certain concatenation of radio wave transmission factors) to “sting” itself in the back. What will happen there, where the antennas of Murmansk will send their signals ...
"Resident" is much smaller, but not much more harmful. And it has a smaller radius of action, but in the “Resident” area of operation you can simply forget about cellular communication. The second generation - Altaets-BM is even more mobile and no less harmful.
In general, as one EW specialist said, “we are pushing everything from geese to satellites.”
Satellites, by the way, is also not a question. It is even easier with them, they fly in certain orbits, and it is quite easy to reach our “partners” to the low-orbit satellites today. There is something.
A separate family of complexes is actually microwaves, burning out all elements of radio-electronic components with radiation.
“Radio” is a rather broad concept, but the second part, “electronic”, includes no fewer components. This, by the way, is the optical range, since laser processing of optical sensors of various guidance systems is the very thing that is interfering with the operation of equipment.
Not encountered, but heard about systems that can stun submarines suppressing their sonars. In principle, nothing fantastic, all the same physics, just another environment. Since the sonar (especially active) works in the same way as its surface counterpart, respectively, you can send something to the antenna as well.
Actually, there would be an antenna to which you can send a hindrance, and it’s definitely not a matter of hindrance.
And the third component. Find, crush and ... protect!
Everything is logical, since the enemy also has its own EW assets. For about the same as ours. So there is something to work against.
In general, of course, the jamming station is a very vulnerable thing in the working cycle. For it has long been in all the armies of the world (normal) there is something to send, focusing on the signal.
But we are now talking about protecting our control systems from enemy repression. Therefore, a significant part of the efforts of EW system developers is also aimed at protecting their own. And this is not so much the development of countermeasures as the whole complexes of technical measures to counter foreign technical intelligence services and EW systems.
Everything is there: signal coding, using packet transmissions, the ability to operate at minimum power in the radio masking mode (this is more a method of organizational nature), various shielding methods, installation of arresters, locking systems (useful if the device is under the influence of enemy interference) and so on.
You should not think that EW jamming everything. It is clear that this is both inefficient (in terms of energy consumption) and cumbersome, since it would require fairly decent means of generating both electricity and signal.
If we talk about modern methods of data transmission, the development of which also does not stand still, then the picture is as follows. If we talk about modern communication systems, then the advanced armies of the world have long been armed with stations using the frequency hopping method (pseudo-random frequency tuning). This is a new communication religion that Bluetooth professes on your phone, for example.
Its essence is that the carrier signal transmission frequency varies in steps in a pseudo-random order. If it is simple - the signal does not “lie” on one particular carrier frequency, but simply jumps from channel to channel from several times to thousands of times per second. Naturally, within the specified frequency range.
And since the sequence of these jumps is known only to the receiver and the transmitter, it is difficult to detect such a signal. For someone who will listen / search on a specific channel, this program will look like a short-term increase in noise. Recognizing that this is a random noise or a transmission tail is a task.
To intercept such a signal is also not easy. To do this, you must at least know the sequence of transition between channels. And though it is “pseudo”, it is random. And "push" such a signal is also an ambush, because you need to know the set of channels. We add that the signal jumps between channels several hundred times a second ...
I hope that physics did not tire anyone. All this is solely in order to explain on the fingers that today the electronic warfare is not a beat on the head with a club, but rather, a precisely calculated stab with a sword. The work is for professionals, moreover, specialists of a very high category.
And if we start talking about future network-centric wars ...
In general, this model of war became possible precisely because the development of information technologies allows it. Including information exchange of all combatants, airplanes, helicopters, reconnaissance and attack UAVs, satellites in orbit, points of guidance and fighters in the trenches.
The United States is very active in running around some components of the network-centric war, and there are certain achievements, yes. It would be nice to introduce into the material an explanation of what “Boyd's Loop” is, but I think it will be quite cumbersome. Let us dwell on the fact that the whole idea of a network-centric war is based on the exchange of information.
That is, it is the communication systems that go to one of the first (or maybe the first) places. Without a reliable and well-protected data exchange system, there will be no “war of tomorrow”.
Violation / suppression of communication systems will lead to paralysis. There is no navigation, there is no identification of "friend or foe", there are no marks about the location of troops, interactive maps do not work, guidance systems do not work ...
In general, not the 21 war of the century, but rather the middle of 20.
The emblem of the troops of electronic warfare depicts a hand in a lattice (in fact, a mail-gauntlet screened by the Tesla method) that squeezed a lightning bolt would have looked more correctly.
Well, in general, the correct approach, beautifully invented. Control over one of the main factors of war today. Control over the air. And the possibility of strangling thereof, if necessary.
Happy holiday, comrades experts of electronic warfare!