Electronic warfare

Control of the electromagnetic spectrum has become a decisive factor in recent conflicts, where jamming has degraded drone operations, disrupted precision guidance and forced rapid adaptation on both sides. The lesson widely drawn is that systems dependent on satellite navigation and uncontested datalinks cannot be assumed to work, which has pushed alternative navigation and resilient communications up procurement priority lists.

The segment covers both offensive and defensive sides: jammers and spectrum attack systems, electronic protection built into platforms, signals intelligence, and the increasingly software-defined systems that can be reprogrammed against new threats in days rather than years. That reprogrammability is the significant structural change — it shifts value from hardware toward software and threat libraries, and rewards firms able to update fielded systems quickly.

Coverage follows programme awards, urgent operational requirements, spectrum policy decisions, and alternative positioning and navigation contracts. Much of the most consequential work in this domain is classified, so public disclosure understates activity — an unusual characteristic worth keeping in mind when reading news flow in this segment.