Chinese scientists create a ‘storm eye’ for PLA forces in electronic warfare

Chinese scientists have developed an advanced electronic warfare technique that can create a zone of electromagnetic calm, similar to the eye of a storm at the heart of an intense signal jamming environment.

This groundbreaking innovation could allow Chinese military forces to disable enemy communications and navigation systems while protecting their own troops and allied networks from collateral disruption.

The technology, still at an early stage with feasibility verified in computer simulations, relies on coordinated unstaffed aerial platforms that emit precisely-tuned radio frequency (RF) interference.

By adjusting the waveform, amplitude, phase and relative timing of their signals, these drones can generate a targeted null at friendly positions where jamming signals are cancelled out.

“Under the simulation condition of a 20 dB interference-to-signal ratio, electromagnetic interference at the target legitimate user can be reduced to zero,” wrote the team led by Yang Jian, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, in a peer-reviewed paper published in Chinese journal Acta Electronica Sinica on July 24.

This dual capability – jamming adversaries while safeguarding allies – marks a significant evolution from traditional electronic warfare, which often relies on brute force. This usually comes in the form of omnidirectional jamming that disrupts everything within range, friend or foe, according to Yang and his collaborators from the National Key Laboratory of Wireless Communications in Chengdu, Sichuan.

South China Morning Post