Fundamentals of electronic warfare [Book Review]

Despite the fact that we live in times of deep peace and many of the threats and ghosts of the Cold War era have been pushed behind the curtains if not all totally thrown into the garbage can of history some of our colleagues still have to prepare for the worst possible case. Parallel to the increase of destructive power and kill rate included in various conventional weapon systems, we have seen the continuously expanding importance and scope of electronic warfare. What once was strictly classified is now partly a question of public interest as well when due to the relative simplification of the major elements of electronics the most diminutive groups of activists or terrorists can be assumed to have access to a number of nasty tools and gadgets usable for electronic attack against any organized society. Recently, a very fascinating book, Fundamentals of Electronic Warfare, has been published by Artech House to hit this particular target area. The content is created by three known scientists; Professor Sergei A. Vakin, Professor Lev N. Shustov, and Dr. Robert H. Dunwell. A brief look at the author biographies makes the potential reader enthusiastic. Professor Vakin, a native of Russia, has been, since 1945, with the Soviet Air Force Engineering Academy, and, since 1958, heads its Electronic Warfare Department. Among other numerous details, he has been given the honor of being the father of Russian EW theory. Vakin’s co-author, Professor Shustov, graduated in 1956 from the Soviet Union’s Air Force Engineering School and, since 1960, worked together with Professor Vakin, particularly in the field of space and time jamming. Dr. Dunwell, on the other hand, has worked for the IBM Corporation from 1974 onward, lately in the Russian Federation within the applications of systems engineering and image processing. Summing up an incredible amount of experience, many years of scientific impact, and much historical background plus, as seen through Western eyes lots of expectation concerning the myths and mysteries of past-USSR technologies is available. Could this be the book which reveals if they really were once able to kill our pilots up there just with a pulse of waves? After a short introduction, the story is divided into seven main chapters. First, the targets of electronic warfare operations are discussed including explanations on radar receivers and optimal reception for radio navigation. Next, in Chapter 2, the reader is given a tough dose of mathematical models of jamming; and then, the third chapter introduces the concepts of warfare effectiveness criteria a rather brutal-sounding but yet wel?-motivated treatment. Chapters 4 and 5 are devoted to the jamming equation. First, the reader is familiarized with active methods and then not surprisingly passive or combinatory technologies. Separate chapters are given both to false, artificial radar targets, and finally, for a look at methods used in reducing detectability of potential real targets. In this last chapter, the authors also give a glimpse into the various ways of affecting the electrical properties of the environment, as seen by radio frequency systems and have included some real test data about the effects of various high-altitude nuclear explosions. Each chapter, with the exception of that for false radar targets (Chapter 6), has been given a roughly even amount of pages whereby the “numerical” overall view of the book is balanced. Most of the time, a systems-like approach is followed and partly extended even across,the frontier line! Fundamentals of Electronic Warfare is somewhat mathematical in its approach. A brief trial indicates only a couple of pages (out of the almost 400) without equations, the total number of which exceeds 800. This is, for the most part, explained by the whole basis of the treatment which assumes that a phenomenon say, a radar sensor’s characteristic or the way chaff falls down should first be given a mathematical backbone, and only after that, some practical explanatory or illustrative material to cover the skeleton. Literature references have been arranged separately after each main chapter. Very many of the given original works come from the Russian scientific community, but some fundamental textbooks appear to be translations of well-known classics, such as Merrill Skolnik’s Radar Handbook. It is possible that some of the material presented in Fundamentals of Electronic Warfare has its very background in The Basics of Radio