Pakistan Air Force to Lean More on Electronic Warfare

The term ‘electronic warfare’ (EW) encompasses multiple domains, but in its most basic sense it is the practice of interfering in the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. The EM spectrum is host to a number of modern warfighting technologies, such as radars, communications, and EW solutions – each one transmits and receives EM signals at various frequencies. Militaries leverage EW as means to monitor or deprecate those EM signals, which can lead to effects like communications jamming, spoofing on radars, and other outcomes.

Compared to any point in the past, modern military operations rely on EM applications for critical tasks like targeting, building situational awareness, and exchanging data between platforms and sensors. Hence, a strong EW capability could, in theory at least, equip an opposing military with the means to deprecate those capabilities and, in turn, weaken an enemy’s warfighting capacity. 

Like other major potential conflict zones, South Asia’s security environment has kept advancing, and, accordingly, EM utilization in both Pakistan and India has reached a new high. In practical terms, one can see this EM use through each country’s growing drone forces, increasing use of precision-guided munitions, and expanding ground-based air defence systems (GBADS), among many other EM applications. This EM utilization will continue swelling, especially as both nuclear powers intensify their respective investment in EW solutions as a means to deprecate their rival’s surveillance, targeting, and communications capabilities. 

For its part, the PAF is growing its full gamut of EW capabilities – i.e., electronic countermeasures (ECM), electronic attack (EA),and  electronic intelligence (ELINT) comprising of communications intelligence (COMINT) and signals intelligence (SIGINT). The PAF is also leveraging EW as part of its counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) strategy.