In at this time’s digitally pushed battlespace, digital warfare (EW) is rising as one of the crucial decisive elements in army success.
EW refers to using electromagnetic radiation, equivalent to radio waves and microwaves, to reinforce a army’s personal capabilities or to disrupt these of an adversary.
This text is the opinion of the writer, Lord Ravensdale, Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Workplace of Science and Expertise, and never essentially that of the UK Defence Journal. If you need to submit your individual article on this subject or every other, please see our submission tips.
Though international capabilities on this subject are advancing quickly, new analysis from the Parliamentary Workplace of Science and Expertise (POST) highlights vital challenges for UK defence, with our EW functionality falling behind that of main nations.
How is digital warfare altering defence?
Fashionable militaries rely closely on the electromagnetic spectrum for communication, navigation, focusing on and situational consciousness. EW exploits this reliance.
Methods equivalent to ‘jamming’ can block or confuse enemy sensors; directed vitality weapons, together with lasers and microwave methods, can bodily injury digital parts; and spoofing can mislead adversaries by mimicking authentic alerts. For instance, it’s potential to spoof international navigation satellite tv for pc system (GNSS) alerts (equivalent to GPS) by sending false location and timestamp info, tricking the receiver into considering it’s at a special location. This could trigger ships or plane to lose their means and missiles to overlook their targets.
The Ukraine battle has introduced EW into sharp focus. In Ukraine, Russian EW methods have been reportedly answerable for 75% of Ukrainian drone losses and have considerably lowered the accuracy of artillery. Each Ukrainian and Russian forces have rapidly developed a spread of EW countermeasures, demonstrating speedy innovation. Some of the hanging diversifications has been using fibre-optic-controlled drones. To bypass Ukrainian detection and jamming, Russian forces started working drones through kilometres-long fibre-optic cables, successfully “hardwiring” them to keep away from electromagnetic interference. This bodily workaround, paired with synthetic intelligence (AI) for navigation and focusing on, provides larger defence and resilience towards communication loss.
However EW is just not confined to the battlefield. All UK important nationwide infrastructure relies on electromagnetic alerts, together with air visitors management, maritime navigation and emergency providers. There was restricted testing within the UK of how these methods would reply to an EW assault, even though disruption, whether or not unintentional or deliberate, may have cascading results. In 2024, for example, GPS interference reportedly triggered outages affecting business aviation and transport throughout Europe.
The UK’s EW functionality hole
The US, Russia and China are thought-about international leaders in EW, whereas, regardless of its strategic significance, Europe has important functionality gaps. In line with Justin Bronk, Senior Analysis Fellow at RUSI, airborne EW capabilities are one of many areas the place NATO nations rely most on the US army.
This has been set out in starker phrases by former Chief of Defence Workers, Basic Sir Nick Carter. In proof to the Home of Lords’ Worldwide Relations and Defence Committee, he famous that the UK doesn’t have “the digital warfare functionality that we want”.
The 2025 Strategic Defence Assessment recognised our on-line world and the electromagnetic spectrum as a distinct army area and dedicated to establishing a CyberEM Command by the top of 2025. The Command goals to deal with the shortage of a central coordination physique, as up to now, every department of the UK’s armed forces has developed its personal EW experience, resulting in fragmentation. Whereas improved coordination is a welcome step, implementation will take time. Compounding it is a persistent expertise hole.
One other latest report from POST discovered expertise shortages throughout STEM sectors price the UK economic system an estimated £1.5 billion a 12 months – and defence is just not resistant to this widespread situation. UK defence struggles to recruit and retain personnel with STEM experience, and just one UK college provides specialist postgraduate programs specializing in EW. And not using a robust pipeline of educated professionals, even essentially the most superior methods danger falling quick in observe.
Moreover, structural boundaries hinder the UK’s progress in EW, with defence procurement being among the many most vital. Conventional “vendor-style” contracts, the place a single provider delivers a complete contract, are sometimes too inflexible for speedy innovation, resulting in “vendor lock” and limiting adaptability. The MOD’s new segmented procurement mannequin goals to deal with this by tailoring contracts to the urgency and dangers concerned for every functionality. Nonetheless, there are nonetheless regulatory challenges for testing and growth. Strict spectrum administration guidelines have traditionally restricted the flexibility to check EW methods inside the UK. Though these guidelines have been withdrawn in 2024, a brand new framework continues to be being developed.
What’s being achieved to shut the UK’s EW functionality hole?
Regardless of these challenges, there are promising developments, and the UK is investing in leading edge applied sciences. The MOD has dedicated to putting in the DragonFire Laser Directed Vitality Weapon on warships between 2024 and 2027, to counter targets like missiles and drones at low price. Lately, there has additionally been funding within the SPEAR-EW, a decoy and stand-in jammer mounted on miniature cruise missiles.
After all, you’ll be able to’t have innovation with out investing in analysis and growth. The Electromagnetic Atmosphere Hub was established in 2023 to hyperlink 5 universities with trade companions, and earlier this 12 months the MOD introduced a brand new UK Defence Innovation organisation. With a £400 million annual funds, it’s designed to speed up the adoption of economic applied sciences. The UK additionally continues to collaborate with NATO and lately joined the Functionality Coalition for Electromagnetic Warfare, sharing information and assets with European allies and Ukraine.
If applied successfully, plans outlined within the 2025 Strategic Defence Assessment to enhance coordination and innovation, coaching and spectrum-sharing between army and civilian sectors may considerably improve the UK’s EW resilience and functionality.
To maneuver ahead, it’s essential we recognise EW is not a distinct segment functionality, and management of the electromagnetic spectrum is quick changing into as important as management of air, land or sea.
Desire a detailed evaluation of the UK’s electromagnetic warfare capabilities? Learn the total report from POST.