Land Warfare Studies Centre Communications Electronic Warfare and the Digitised Battlefield about the Authors Abbreviations and Acronyms

Modern land commanders are increasingly dependent on information-age systems comprising communications and information systems, networks and sensors. While these systems have the potential to produce significant changes in the conduct and character of war, their reliance on the electromagnetic spectrum also has the potential to increase their vulnerability to interdiction by electronic-warfare systems. Of all the changes likely to occur as a result of the use of information-age systems, the evolution of today’s disparate battlefield communications systems into a single battlefield network is perhaps the most significant. These networks will both support electronic warfare as well as provide its targets. There have been many books and articles describing noncommunications electronic warfare, which is electronic warfare in the context of electronic sensor systems, particularly radar. This paper addresses the effect of electronic warfare on the battlefield communications systems that support the commandand-control process, that is, battlefield communications networks. This aspect of electronic combat is called communications electronic warfare. Moreover, this paper focuses on the components and techniques employed at the tactical level of land warfare, that is, at division and below. The paper begins by briefly describing the operational environment of the digitised battlefield. The concept of network-centric warfare is discussed as an example of a doctrine that is emerging in the United States to harness the power of the information revolution for application to land warfare. This doctrine is then examined in the context of the heavy reliance that networked forms of warfare have on the use of the electromagnetic spectrum. The information revolution not only provides an improved ability to command and control, but also