Electronic attack

Electronic attack, also called electronic countermeasures, is part of electronic warfare, which uses of electromagnetic energy, directed energy, or antiradiation weapons to attack personnel, facilities, or equipment with the intent of degrading, neutralizing, or destroying enemy combat capability.

Electronic attack may attempt to "burn out" and permanently destroy its targets, but it is most likely to make it temporarily ineffective, with its users aware of that fact, or to make the target provide false information. The former is called, among other things, generic jamming, while the latter may be called deceptive jamming.

Meaconing is a specific form of deceptive jamming directed at navigational systems. It will receiving radio beacon, or navigational radar, signals and rebroadcasting them, on the same frequency to confuse navigation. The meaconing stations cause inaccurate bearings to be obtained by aircraft or ground stations. Meaconing also includes deception directed at active navigational aids, which, in normal operation, transmit a response signal on a different frequency than used to trigger the aid. In such cases, meaconing sends out a stronger faked response to confuse other receivers.

Targeting electronic attack

It will be necessary to know the opponent's electronic order of battle, including the types, locations, and operating characteristics of his electronics. At the tactical level, collecting such information is often called electronic support.

Electronic support may combine with signals intelligence (SIGINT) provided by higher-level organizations. SIGINT further divides into communications intelligence about radios and other human-oriented systems, and electronic intelligence against radar, electronic navigation aids, and weapons guidance systems.

Defending against electronic attack

A wide range of electronic protection measures can be used to defend against electronic attack. They may be passive, such as shielding one's own equipment, using highly directional antennas, or other techniques. Active defenses are often called electronic counter-countermeasures, and include making one's signal hard to detect and thus attack (i.e., low-probability-of-intercept, rapidly changing frequencies (i.e., frequency agility) or transmitting/receiving locations (e.g., multistatic techniques, mixing the signal with noise (i.e., spread-spectrum technology), and a wide range of other methods.