Regards croisés sur la guerre électronique
Information dominance through the exploitation of the electromagnetic spectrum has become a cornerstone of military superiority. However, it is now threatened by increasingly advanced electronic warfare capabilities.
Although somewhat neglected since the end of the Cold War, electronic warfare has become a crucial aspect of contemporary conflicts again. But as modern battlefield is now undergoing widespread digitization, so is the electromagnetic spectrum which has been deeply transformed through the information technology revolution, thus showing an even greater military potential. However, these unprecedented opportunities come along with new threats and challenge, which only to be met by intensive capability and operational developments. Faced with increasingly tough opponents, Western approach to electronic warfare must be reinvented. In particular, the growing proximity between telecommunications and the digital realm has brought about a cyber-electronic continuum, whose operational convergence could be better used. To preserve their information dominance, Western militaries must equip themselves with the means of developing ever more innovative electronic warfare systems.
This content is only available in French: Regards croisés sur la guerre électronique
Author(s)
Related centers and programs
Discover our other research centers and programs
Security Studies Center
Heir to a tradition dating back to the founding of Ifri, the Security Studies Center provides public and private decision-makers as well as the general public with the keys to understanding power relations and contemporary modes of conflict as well as those to come. Through its positioning at the juncture of politics and operations, the credibility of its civil-military team and the wide distribution of its publications in French and English, the Center for Security Studies constitutes in the French landscape of think tanks a unique center of research and influence on the national and international defense debate.
Find out more
Discover all our analyses
From Cuba to Ukraine: Strategic Signaling and Nuclear Deterrence
Strategic signaling—the range of signs and maneuvers intended, in peace time, to lend credibility to any threat to use nuclear weapons—is back.
Return to the East: the Russian Threat and the French Pivot to Europe's Eastern Flank
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, has flung Europe’s Eastern flank into a new phase of strategic confrontation. It has had a major effect on France’s position, which was previously somewhat timid, leading it to significantly reinforce its deterrence and defense posture in support of the collective defense of Europe, in the name of strategic solidarity and the protection of its security interests.
Military Stockpiles: A Life-Insurance Policy in a High-Intensity Conflict?
The war in Ukraine is a reminder of the place of attrition from high-intensity conflict in European armies that have been cut to the bone after three decades of budget cuts. All European forces have had to reduce their stocks to the bare minimum. As a result, support to Ukraine has meant a significant drain on their operational capabilities. A significant amount of decommissioned systems were also donated, due to the lack of depth in operational fleets.
France’s Place Within NATO: Toward a Strategic Aggiornamento?
With a rapidly deteriorating security environment, a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, internal disputes exploding into public view, and questions being raised about the scope of its security responsibilities, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) seemed to be in dire straits at the time of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.