El Segundo, CA -- Imagine electronic pulses in space that block the reception of legitimate signals and replace them with counterfeits. Once limited to the realm of science fiction, electronic warfare in space is a real threat to our nation’s critical infrastructure and the defense systems our military branches rely on to protect, deter and defend.
“There are a lot of different ways an adversary can employ electronic warfare,” said U.S. Space Force Maj. Neal Carter, Space Systems Command’s (SSC) deputy director of Intelligence. “There is ground-based EW, airborne EW, and maritime-based EW, but what we’re seeing more and more is space-based EW. There are also different types of electronic warfare – electronic attack, electronic support and electronic protection.”
Electronic attacks essentially radiate large amounts of electromagnetic energy onto a satellite receiver or a radio antenna, making it difficult if not impossible for an operator to receive the intended signal.
Carter provided an example, “I have two kids, and they can be very loud,” he said. “If I’m in the kitchen, washing dishes, and my wife is in the living room and she’s trying to tell me something from across the room, but the kids are talking so loudly, it’s just impossible for me to hear her – that’s jamming.”
“You’re not necessarily doing anything to the intended receiver; you’re just making it impossible for that receiver to hear over the noise,” Carter said. “EW has been around for more than 100 years, but as warfare evolves -- from the land domain to the air domain to the sea domain -- now adversaries can target space assets in orbit. Satellites communicate with receivers on the ground and the adversary has found ways to essentially ‘scream’ so loudly that the ground receivers can’t hear the signal we’re trying to send.”
How does the Space Force combat this kind of warfare? By hardening its systems and figuring out ways for the receivers to signal-hop, Carter said. Another method is to just “scream louder” by boosting the power of the intended signal.
“If an adversary figures out we’re communicating on a certain frequency, then they’re going to start jamming that frequency,” Carter said. “So, instead of staying stationary on that frequency, we may configure our radios to frequency-hop, making it difficult for our adversaries to jam us.”