TEL AVIV, July 25 — The shift in how military powers think about control of the electromagnetic spectrum may be one of the quieter revolutions in modern conflict. Electronic warfare — or EW — has long been a supporting arm of information operations, but NATO’s transformation concept from 2007 already recognized the electromagnetic environment (EME) as an operational maneuver space and a warfighting environment in its own right.
The trend underneath: the EME is no longer just a medium for signals; it is a domain to be fought for, secured, and exploited.
What electronic warfare actually means
At its core, EW — also called electromagnetic warfare — uses the electromagnetic spectrum or directed energy to control that spectrum, attack an enemy, or hinder enemy operations. The purpose is clear: deny the opponent the advantage of the EM spectrum while guaranteeing friendly forces unimpeded access. This can be done from air, sea, land, or space, using crewed or uncrewed systems.
Targets range from communication and radar systems to other military and civilian assets. The whole area of operations is what experts call the electromagnetic environment, or EME — a crowded, contested space where vulnerabilities and opportunities meet.
Within the information operations framework, EW sits squarely in offensive and defensive counterinformation — an element of information warfare. NATO takes a different approach than the US military, though both share the same basic tools. A 2007 Military Committee conceptual document — MCM_0142 Nov 2007 Military Committee Transformation Concept for Future NATO Electronic Warfare — formally recognized the EME as a warfighting environment.
NATO now treats EW as warfare conducted in that specific environment, and has simplified its language to match other warfighting domains: electronic attack (EA), electronic defense (ED), and electronic surveillance (ES). The older terms — electronic countermeasures (ECM), electronic protective measures (EPM), and electronic support measures (ESM) — were kept as subordinate categories that feed into EA, ED, and ES respectively.
The three major subdivisions
Electronic warfare breaks into three broad subdivisions: electronic attack (EA), electronic protection (EP), and electronic warfare support (ES). EA — also called electronic countermeasures — is the offensive use of electromagnetic energy. That can take the form of jamming, using directed energy weapons, or deploying anti-radiation weapons.
Jamming disrupts communications or radar systems, overwhelming them with noise or false signals. Anti-radiation weapons, typically missiles or bombs, home in on a specific signal and ride that path to impact, destroying the broadcasting system altogether.
The objective: degrade, neutralize, or destroy enemy combat capability — including human life. Other electromagnetic operations running alongside EW include intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR), as well as signals intelligence (SIGINT). The primary activities exploit the physics of EM energy — electro-optical, infrared, and radio frequency countermeasures; EM compatibility and deception; radio and radar jamming and deception; electronic counter-countermeasures (anti-jamming); electronic masking, probing, reconnaissance, and intelligence; electronic security; EW reprogramming; emission control; spectrum management; and wartime reserve modes.
Concrete developments
One notable recent capability — announced by Israel Aerospace Industries in November 2021 — is an EW system called Scorpius. According to the company, Scorpius can disrupt radar and communications from ships, UAVs, and missiles simultaneously. It is a clear example of the kind of multi-domain, multi-target electronic attack that is shaping modern defenses.
Watch this space. As militaries increasingly treat the EM spectrum as a warfighting domain — not just a support function — the tools and tactics of electronic warfare will only become more central to how conflicts are fought and won.
The trend underneath is that control of the invisible spectrum is becoming as decisive as control of the ground, the sea, the air, or space itself.
