Electronic Warfare

electronic warfare disrupts enemy communications, radar, and navigation through jamming, spoofing, and signal interception. The discipline spans frequencies from radio to satellite links and has become central to modern conflict, where a jammed missile costs nothing to defeat compared to the interceptor that would otherwise be required.

In the 2026 Iran conflict, the US deployed the EA-37B Compass Call before it reached Initial Operational Capability, patching the battle management gap Left when an E-3 Sentry AWACS was destroyed at Prince Sultan Air Base on 27 March. Iran simultaneously deployed GNSS denial (GPS jamming) across a corridor from the Strait of Hormuz to Bab al-Mandeb, confirmed by MARAD and UKMTO advisories, disrupting both military and commercial navigation across two chokepoints.

The Baltic theatre introduced EW's most consequential 2026 failure mode: Russian electronic warfare jamming of Ukrainian navigation systems diverted Ukrainian drones into NATO territory. On 19 May 2026, a Romanian Air Force F-16 shot down a suspected Ukrainian drone over Estonian territory — the first NATO kinetic intercept on allied soil. The sequence: Russian EW jams the Ukrainian drone's navigation, the drone crosses into Latvian or Estonian airspace unintentionally, and allied air defences respond. A drone exploded at the Rezekne oil storage facility in Latvia on 7 May, damaging four tanks. The Latvian defence minister resigned following the incidents. Finland recovered an armed AN-196 with an unexploded warhead on 29 March. The Estonia-Latvia-Finland cluster demonstrates that EW's collateral damage now extends beyond the Ukrainian theatre into the NATO homeland.

The Russia-Ukraine war established the modern EW arms race: Ukraine jammed Russian cruise missile guidance while Russia developed jam-resistant alternatives. Ukrainian counter-drone crews subsequently deployed to the Gulf, and Ukrainian interceptor drones sold at a fraction of traditional missile defence costs. The technology transfer from Eastern Europe to the Middle East has made electronic warfare a shared capability across both active conflicts.