Space EW 2.0

Space is an Electronic Warfare domain, just like land, sea and air. We are significantly dependent on satellite assets and those assets are vulnerable to enemy kinetic or electronic attack. 

In ground, sea and air based EW, the closer we get to targets, the better we can intercept or jam them. Satellite borne systems are by their nature far away—creating challenges that require careful consideration.

This is a two part on-demand webinar. The first part was presented on 11 January 2018. It covered the basics of Earth satellite orbits: Ephemerides, Earth satellite orbit mechanics, spherical trigonometry, look angle and range formulas for satellites and horizon range formulas. You might want to review part one before viewing part 2.

The second part of the webinar goes on to deal with the vulnerability of Earth satellite links and some formulas related to the operation of intercept and jamming payloads. Using the equations developed in part 1, we will place a satellite and an Earth surface location to calculate the look angles and range between these two locations. Then we will determine the link parameters for a microwave and a UHF frequency. 

The equations will be run to determine:

• The ability of a ground based jammer to jam the satellite’s up link
• The quality of intercept the satellite can achieve against a ground-based anti-air radar and a tactical communications network
• The J/S ratio the satellite can achieve when jamming that radar and that communications network