ANALYSIS – Red China appears to have caught up to the United States in electronic warfare (EW) capabilities, one of the few remaining military technology areas that gave us a decisive advantage.
And China’s navy may even have had its first success against a U.S. carrier-based electronic attack aircraft in the Pacific this past December.
EW uses the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum to deny the enemy use of the same spectrum. It includes communications and radar detection, identification and jamming. It also involves protecting assets from these threats as well as kinetic attacks.
It can be conducted from air, sea, land or space by crewed and uncrewed systems. And China is pushing the limits on what it can do.
The Eurasian Times notes that:
China’s new class of EW equipment can rapidly detect, decode, and suppress enemy signals. China’s rebranding of the PLA Strategic Support Force (PLA-SSF) into the PLA-Information Support Force (PLA-ISF) highlights China’s strategic shift towards technology-driven “intelligentized warfare.” Electronic Warfare is also a key component of China’s Multi-Domain Precision Warfare (MDPW) concept, which leverages AI and big data to identify and exploit weaknesses in US operational systems.
Asia Times reported: “China’s MDPW seeks to dismantle and destroy U.S. kill chains by targeting critical information nodes such as aircraft and satellites through physical attacks and targeting information networks by using EW and cyberattacks.”
The Eurasian Times added: “China may have improved its EW capabilities quickly by investing in new technologies and placing them in a more extensive kill web consisting of kinetic and non-kinetic elements.”
This accelerated effort came after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reportedly “failed to track and surveil the US Air Force transport plane carrying [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi during her [August 2022] visit [to Taiwan] despite deploying Type 055 cruisers and J-16D EW aircraft.”
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) noted that their source said that in that case almost all of the PLA’s EW equipment failed to function because of electronic interference from Pelosi’s escorting aircraft force.
Since then, China has been on a tear ramping up their EW capabilities.
SCMP claims that in encounters with U.S. Navy ships with EW activity, China has used electromagnetic-emitting equipment, including high-power phased array radars, to lock on to multiple targets including U.S. carrier-based aircraft.
And by December 2023, it may have defeated its first American EW aircraft.
Eurasian Times reports:
China’s cutting-edge EW capabilities are tilting the balance of power in the South China Sea. In July, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on China’s enhanced EW capabilities by shedding light on a December 2023 incident between a US EA-18 Growler carrier-based EW aircraft and China’s Type 055 cruiser Nanchang in the contested South China Sea.
Apparently, in this embarrassing incident, our EA-18G aircraft was electronically defeated by the PLA, essentially stopping a U.S. carrier battle group in its tracks. The PLA recognized the Nanchang’s crew for their actions against the U.S fleet. Chinese media also highlighted an encounter involving an and the Nanchang cruiser.
This is critical since, for years, China and the U.S. have been engaged in electronic confrontation “every day” around the globe, but especially in the South China Sea and near the Chinese mainland itself. And until now, the U.S. always came out on top.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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From Chinese spies no doubt
Rule number one in Peacetime EW operations – collection is the priority, not Electronic Attack. Keep that in mind.
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