PART A:
COMPONENTS OF ELECTRONIC WARFARE (EW)
Electronic warfare is divided into three components:
electronic
warfare
support (ES), electronic attack (EA), and electronic protection (EP).
1. Electronic Warfare Support (ES).
a. Electronic Warfare Support (ES) are that part of EW involving actions
taken, under the direct control of the operational commander, to intercept,
identify, exploit, and locate enemy sources of radiated electromagnetic energy.
Intelligence gained from ES gives the commander timely information upon which
he can base his immediate decision. ES supports all-source analysis, EA and EP
both the offensive and defensive aspects of EW.
As one source of combat
information, ES focuses on the commander's immediate needs for identifying the
enemy's intent and obtaining target information.
b. ES consist of four basic functions.
These functions are:
Intercept
Identify
Exploit
Locate
(1) Intercept of enemy communications and noncommunications emissions is
another major function of ES. This interception of enemy target transmissions
is actually comprised of two equally important steps.
First, the intercept
operator must be capable of recognizing the desired signal, either while in a
general search mode or when tasked to monitor a specific frequency. Second,
when the desired signal is encountered, the operator must take immediate action
to record it for subsequent playback or make a written record of the signal's
parametric measurements.
(2) The identify function involves identification and categorization of
communications and noncommunications emissions based on specific parametric
measurements.
(3) The exploit function results are used to orient jamming antennas for
EA missions, support fire and maneuver by combat elements, and develop
information on the battlefield situation.
(4) The locate function uses direction finding (DF) ops to find emitters
on the battlefield. DF is concerned with determining the arrival direction of
a radio wave. Unlike an ordinary radio receiver, a DF receiver with associated
equipment indicates the approximate direction along an imaginary line on which
a distant transmitter lies. A rough analogy would be using a lensatic compass
to determine the direction of magnetic north. While information obtained by DF
may not always be accurate enough to direct artillery fire, the direction of a
distant transmitter can usually be determined with an accuracy of plus or minus
two degrees.
c. DF operations require the use of multiple stations operating along a
baseline.
A DF baseline is the imaginary line or axis along which the DF
equipment of a DF network is deployed.
IS3007
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