China's new electronic warfare tech disrupts enemy systems while protecting friendly signals

Yahoo

2 days ago

Chinese researchers have reportedly developed a new electronic warfare (EW) system that can simultaneously interfere with enemy systems while keeping friendly ones untouched in a 'null zone'. Likened to the eye of a storm, this new technology represents a significant shift in conventional EW systems.
To help conceptualize how it works, think of a storm. Everything inside it is disrupted by intense electromagnetic noise. But the center of a hurricane, colloquially called 'the eye', is completely calm. The new technology intentionally creates the 'eye' for friendly forces, even in the middle of aggressive electronic warfare.
The innovation reportedly works on coordinated drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) acting as precise jamming sources. These drones emit carefully crafted radio signals that can be adjusted for waveform, amplitude, phase, and timing (all controllable radio frequency signal parameters).
Dual drones act in tandem to create 'the eye'
The dual feature of both jamming enemy devices while allowing ally communication involves two drones acting in conjunction. While the first acts as the primary jammer, neutralizing enemy signals through disruptive waves; the second emits a counter signal that nullifies the jamming wave at an location where friendly forces are operating.
The signals cancel each other out at the point they intersect, creating 'the eye' or the calm. In signal processing terms, the technology uses beamforming and phase cancellation strategies, typically found in advanced communications but now repurposed for electronic warfare.
Older conventional jamming or suppression EW systems tend to be omnidirectional, with the signal effectively broadcast in all directions in a 3D space. Such systems are not picky, and tend to suppress all vulnerable electronic systems within range.
These systems tend to be manned to some extent and have a relatively low precision. More advanced systems, like those used on the EA-6B 'Prowler', EA-18G 'Growler', or even Russia's 'Khibiny', use directional jamming techniques that are more focused.
Potentially revolutionary but only in simulation stage
The new Chinese system, on the other hand, would overcome many of these downsides. During computer simulations, the researchers tested the system under heavy jamming conditions. The jamming signals were 100 times stronger than the target signal (20 dB = 10^2). Despite this, they were able altogether to cancel out the interference at the friendly receiver.
"Under the simulation condition of a 20 dB interference-to-signal ratio, electromagnetic interference at the target legitimate user can be reduced to zero," wrote the team led by Yang Jian, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, in a peer-reviewed paper published in the Chinese journal Acta Electronica Sinica.
The feat is impressive if the claims are true, as it implies extremely precise spatial control of the electromagnetic environment. For military applications, this would be very useful as it would enable a kind of 'selective jamming', offering a huge tactical edge.
It would enable secure operations in contested environments (e.g., GPS-denied zones). Such a system would also make EW less of a blunt instrument and more of a surgical tool.
As impressive as all this sounds, it is essential to note that the system is currently simulation only and not proven in real-world tests. It also relies heavily on precise drone coordination and advanced real-time signal control, which is technically difficult to pull off under combat conditions.