Abstract. As its name implies, EW 102: A Second Course in
Electronic Warfare is the second book in the series by
David Adamy. Like EW 101, it is one of the
few books available that provides a top-level view of electronic
warfare (EW) and is easy to read without glossing over
important technical details. The book is intended for those requiring
a general overview of the subject area.
Like the first book
in the series, this book is based on David Adamy’s
popular series of EW 101 articles published in the Journal
of Electronic Defense (JED) (for those interested in traceability, Appendix
B maps the JED articles into the book chapters). David
holds BSEE and MSEE degrees in communication theory and is
very active in EW-related fields having been an EW professional
in and out of uniform for over 40 years. In
addition to the EW 101 columns, he has published ten
books (including this one). He provides EW-related courses around the
world and is a regular consultant to defence and defence
industry.
EW 102 contains almost entirely new material with only occasional
reference to EW 101 material when such material is useful
as an overview to introduce selected sections. There are seven
chapters with three appendices: Appendix A is a large collection
of problems (with worked solutions) of problems from both EW
101 and EW 102; Appendix B provides a cross-reference of
the chapters of both EW 101 and EW 102 to
the JED EW 101 columns that contain the same material;
and Appendix C contains a list of reference books in
electronic warfare and associated disciplines.
Chapter 1 provides an introduction to
the field and introduces a simple taxonomy for the field
of EW. Additionally, EW is placed in context as the
action part of information warfare (IW).
Chapter 2 covers, from a
functional and signal point of view, the basic threats to
which electronic warfare must react. The chapter describes in general
terms both communications and non-communications threats (although it is more
normal to refer to communications ‘threats’ as targets). Radar threats
are discussed in terms of general definitions, frequency ranges, scan
characteristics and modulation characteristics. Communications targets are described in terms
of the nature of communications signals, tactical communications, digital data
links and satellite links.
Chapters 3 to 5 cover the three
major systems that attract the attention of EW: radar; infrared
and electro-optical, and communications systems.
Chapter 3 covers radar characteristics
of the different kinds of radar, with an emphasis on
their significance to EW. Topics include types of radar, the
radar range equation, detection range, modulation, moving target indicator radars,
synthetic-aperture radars and low-probability-of intercept radars.
Chapter 4 describes infrared (IR)
and electro-optical (EO) systems including heat-seeking missiles, IR imaging systems,
night-vision devices, laser designators, and IR and EO countermeasures.
EW against
communications signals is discussed in Chapter 5. Topics include radio-wave
propagation (HF, VHF and UHF), digital communication, jamming, emitter location,
and spread-spectrum communications.
Chapter 6 discusses emitter-location techniques including a
brief review of techniques, error statistics, circular error probability for
common emitter-location techniques.
Satellite communications links are covered in Chapter
7, which describes the nature of satellite communication systems, prediction
of satellite link performance, and link jamming.
Like EW 101, EW
102 is an essential addition to the library of all
EW professionals, whether technical or not. It provides an excellent
introduction to electronic warfare in general, and to non-communications EW
in particular. While EW 102 is more mathematical than the
first of the series, it is still very accessible to
readers from all backgrounds explaining a complex field in simple
terms. It certainly meets its aim of providing a good
grasp of the fundamentals as well as an ability to
make general-level calculations.
Related topics:
electronic warfare, book review
View first page of "D. Adamy, EW 102: A Second Course in Electronic Warfare, Artech House, Norwood, Massachusetts, 2004."
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