In early 2024, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) revealed its ongoing work to make electronic warfare (EW) a central aspect of its air warfare doctrine (see Quwa’s report on the PAF for more details).
This shift is a departure from the PAF’s previous approach, which was to leverage EW in specific roles, most notably offensive air operations (like Swift Retort in 2019). With multiple land-based and airborne systems in the procurement pipeline, and a widespread domestic industry drive to supply solutions, EW will be a mainstay asset.
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The PAF credits the DA-20 for playing a leading role in jamming the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) communications, especially between its fighter aircraft and ground intercept controllers. It may have also been the case that the PAF succeeded in jamming Indian ground-based and air radars at various points of the operation.
The interesting outcome of Swift Retort was that the PAF basically used its EW assets for their intended purpose – i.e., offensive operations – but emerged from the operation with a desire to distribute EW across more domains as well as leverage ELINT.
Ironically, the need to improve offensive EW elements may have driven this shift. For example, building a threat library is essential to improving EA and ECM as it enables the jamming systems to leverage a larger inventory of EM emission signatures. But to build that threat library, the PAF would need to invest in widespread ELINT – especially SIGINT – capabilities to monitor the space for enemy radar emissions. However, the EW focus now extends beyond arming offensive wings; rather, the PAF wants to deploy end-to-end EA/ECM and ELINT capabilities on a wider scale.
The PAF’s Emerging EW Direction
As covered in an earlier Quwa report, a range of domestically built land-based EW systems are forming the bulk of the PAF’s EW procurement. These include COMINT, ELINT, and ECM suites configured to interfere with a wide array of signals, including data-links (such as those supporting enemy drone operations), communications signals, and radar emissions. Additionally, the PAF is also acquiring off-the-shelf EW systems from China (the details of which can be found in Quwa’s report on the PAF’s procurement plans in this decade).
The growing investment in land-based EW systems is interesting as it indicates a focus on using EW for defensive purposes. One could have expected the PAF to expand its ELINT coverage via aircraft (especially drones) for the sake of building threat libraries, but the systems being inducted speak to a wider focus on both signal gathering and signal jamming. Hence, it is possible that the PAF will station EW systems in proximity of its high-value assets. This could be a ‘soft-kill’ means of augmenting the growing medium-range and long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) coverages (which would represent the ‘hard-kill’ element).
In addition to potentially defensive-oriented land-based EW, the PAF is also maintaining its focus on airborne EA/ECM assets for offensive purposes. The most notable example of this effort is the plan to configure a Bombardier Global Express 6000 executive jet into a stand-off jamming (SOJ). The PAF will complement this SOJ acquisition by configuring ECM into more of its fighter aircraft via self-protection jamming (SPJ) pods or integrated suites. Collectively, these procurements will confer the PAF with more offensively-ready units, augmenting the F-16s.
Future Procurement and Industry Trends
Thus far, the PAF’s ongoing EW acquisitions involve either China or domestic industry vendors. But the latter are certainly drawing on imports for critical inputs (such as semiconductors feeding the transmit/receive modules, for example). To be successful, foreign vendors are likely injecting themselves in the domestic industry’s supply chain for critical inputs. In turn, domestic producers will focus on original design work and integration tasks.
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