Future of War

Jaison Deepak

Sun Tzu’s concept of deception in the context of modern warfare is primarily achieved through the fourth domain, the electronic domain. Electronic Warfare (EW) is not exactly new and had been used in World War II where No 100 Group Royal Air Force (RAF) used bombers and heavy fighters to carry out RF interception, jamming and chaffs to degrade the Luftwaffe land-based radars and night fighters.

EW proved increasingly decisive in Vietnam when United States Air Force (USAF) B-52 and F-4 carried jammer pods to minimise losses from SA-2 SAMs. The Gulf War, Operation Mole Cricket 19 by Israeli Air Force in the Beqaa valley also showed how integrated air defences were vulnerable to the combination of EW and SEAD/DEAD aircraft. Even in peace time Electronic Support Measure (ESM) aircraft prowl, fingerprinting enemy radar and communication emissions, deciphering them in order to counter them during war.

The commercialisation of miniature compact low power electronic components has led to the proliferation of EW but has also led to increased challenges. With the Indian Air Force (IAF) facing a multitude of advanced threats from the ground and in the air, EW can prove to be the silver bullet in future wars.

Radar Warning Receivers

The first indigenous attempts in this domain were made by the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO’s) Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE), resulting in the Tranquil RWR for the Mig-23BN fleet. Its improved variant, the Tarang-1/1B/2 RWR, equips a majority of the fighter fleet from Mi-21, MiG-27, MiG-29, Su-30MKI. The Tarang is an analog RWR which makes it difficult to detect Low Probability Intercept (LPI) signals.

The R118 Dhruti wideband Digital receivers were developed for the SU-30MKI. The digital receiver makes it possible to differentiate overlapping signals, differentiate single pulses among CW within a frequency band. This makes it better equipped to differentiate multiple radar threats with frequencies close to each other and also to differentiate radar emissions from the background noise. DARE is also working on digital narrowband receivers for better sensitivity and selectivity.

Self-Protection Jammer Pods

DARE had developed the Trap, Trumpet, Tempest, Tusker Pod based jammers which are in use with IAF Mig-27s. They are primarily noise jammers coupled with the Tarang RWR. Being noise jammers they had serious limitations with respect to power consumption, vulnerability to enemy detection, effectivene