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Defence & DSEi Special Designing usable


electronic warfare systems


Gavin O’Connell assesses some of the constraints design engineers face when developing effective electronic warfare systems for troops on the ground


D


eveloping an effective Electronic Warfare (EW) system for the military is a complex challenge. Developers of EW systems want to ensure maximum capability but are faced with a variety of different constraints, for example they can be constrained by the weight a soldier can carry. In this case it means that when designing new EW systems some trade- offs between portability and functionality will be inevitable. If some considerations of these trade-offs are made at the early design stages they can be minimised. Also, scalability can be built in which means that those trade-offs are continually reduced as technological capabilities progress in the long term.


The changing battle environment means that never before have EW systems been more vital. The common battle situation is now one of ‘counter insurgency’ rather than the more traditional ‘force-on-force’ environment. This means that the field of operation changes quickly, creating a situation which


requires new systems for dismounted troops to fight more effectively. EW operations


therefore require intuitive, lightweight and rapidly deployable manpack systems designed to be flexible so that they can be used either on-the-march, in a static environment, or mounted on vehicles. The key requirements for such systems are:


■ A modular system which provides Electronic Surveillance, so that the user can listen to enemy communications, and Electronic Attack which denies them the ability to communicate.


22 July/August 2011 Components in Electronics Gavin O’Connell


■ Be network-enabled to pass target data between nodes for effective geo- location of the enemy.


■ Data-fusion and interoperability with other military systems to support the entire intelligence cycle.


■ Be able to perform effectively in extreme environments such as heat. ■ Evolution of systems


With such wide range of requirements, other trade-offs are also going to be inevitable in the final design of a suitable EW system.


Roke, which was founded more than 50 years ago, has a long track record in developing new EW solutions and systems quickly to meet changing military demands. Last year it was awarded a contract by the MoD to provide the next land EW manpack programme to British forces. This year Roke was also given The Queen's


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