Electronic Warfare Is Here And It Is Incredibly Boring

Usually, when talking about electronic warfare, the images that come to mind include hackers battling each other for dominance and tapping away at a keyboard in order to take the other party out. However, a lot of the real EW that’s going on right now is considerably less exciting. On that note, this doesn’t mean that there are no real-world consequences that come with it.

It was recently reported that EW is currently at its most intense in Syria, right now. Communications with EC-130 aircraft, which are sophisticated planes that are designed to jam combat communications are themselves getting jammed.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the aircraft is intended to play a major role in the new kind of warfare by basically being able to prevent specific targets from communicating with each other. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make it immune to the same tactics, especially when the enemy is particularly adept at a similar style of interference.

In Syria, for example, several units of the plane are getting disabled. This was according to General Raymond Thomas who spoke at a symposium that was attended by more than 2,000 intelligence operatives and experts.

Currently, no one has been able to identify the cause of the interference, although many are speculating Russian involvement. The country has already proven capable of jamming drones being flown by U.S. operatives in Syria, Futurism notes, so it’s not exactly a stretch to believe that it would also have the capability to do the same thing to an EC-130 aircraft.

This could be a turning point for how warfare is conducted in the future. Instead of just bombs, bullets, and radar, hacking experts could just be as vital in both ending conflict and reducing the number of casualties. This will also affect how the military R&D goals of any nation are shaped since AI and automation are going to play a major role in those areas, as well.