United States Space Force personnel operating a satellite antenna during an electromagnetic warfare military exercise – photograph by Tech. Sgt. Luke Kitterman in California on 20 September 2022 and released released by the United States Space Force with the ID 220920-X-VE588-1004 (public domain image used in Wikipedia “Electronic Warfare”)

(15) ELECTRONIC WARFARE & CYBERWARFARE

Electronic warfare – evocatively defined as “warfare involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum” or “directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy operations”.

In other words – intercepting, jamming or targeting modern communication, radar, “or other military or civilian assets” such as electronic guidance systems for drones, missiles or planes. Or the less destructive way of “sending them back to the Stone Age”.

Interestingly, electronic warfare dates back further than you’d think, albeit still at the dawn of the twentieth century – with Morse code in the Boer War, followed closely by radio interception or jamming elsewhere, including in the Russo-Japanese War. Churchill colorfully called the electronic warfare of WW2 as the “Battle of the Beams”.

Cyberwarfare on the other hand is the use of cyberattacks or the various means of “technological force within computer networks” against an enemy state, “causing comparable harm to traditional warfare” – “espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation, and economic warfare” – or deploying defensive measures against the former.

In other words – essentially war by hacking (and counter-hacking).