electronic warfare

Just as there is war on land and at sea, so now there is war in the electromagnetic spectrum. This can be classified as attacking, protective or supportive.  Attacking involves using directed energy to destroy enemy personnel, facilities or equipment. Jamming is an example of this where communications and radar systems are paralysed by sending out signals of the same frequency.

Protection could be resisting jamming attempts by the enemy or sending up flares to cause infrared homing missiles to miss their target.  And warfare support could be the identification of enemy electromagnetic energy or the interception of radio transmissions.

Electronic warfare is distinct from cyber warfare which includes hacking.

Electronic warfare dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, but it has developed significantly in this century and diversified sufficiently to require a category name. And a budget allocation.