With flaring tensions between China and the United States, Beijing has launched an earnest effort to bolster its military readiness. After simulating strikes with its lethal anti-ship missiles and testing ‘hard to intercept’ hypersonic weapons, Beijing is poised to challenge the U.S. Navy with a new Electronic Warfare (EW) strategy.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in June 2024 that a war with China was neither imminent nor unavoidable. However, tensions between the two states have continued to simmer, primarily due to China’s ‘rising aspirations’ in the South China Sea.
The two superpowers could be headed for a bitter confrontation if China launches an invasion of Taiwan. China considers Taiwan a renegade Chinese province and has vowed to seize the self-rule island state of 24 million people and merge it with the Chinese ‘motherland.’
In recent years, Beijing has conducted several military drills simulating the blockade of Taiwan, rehearsing what appeared to be an all-out invasion and cutting off the island from external interference.
China understands that aircraft carriers and destroyers would be crucial for the U.S. Navy to puncture the blockade. This has prompted Beijing to develop and test some lethal weapons that could thwart the U.S. Navy, coming to Taiwan’s aid.
China has a powerful stockpile of anti-ship missiles, and its strategy to prevent U.S. forces from entering the Western Pacific is centered on these weapons.
China’s arsenal of anti-ship ballistic missiles, also known as “carrier killers,” has grown dramatically. China’s primary anti-ship missiles include the DF-21, DF-26, YJ-12, YJ-18, and YJ-83. Moreover, it also has YJ-21 and DF-27 hypersonic missiles that have the potential to penetrate air defenses and destroy U.S. Navy ships. Some of these weapons have been used in simulated strikes on U.S. carriers.
The U.S., on its part, has excellent machinery to detect incoming hostile targets and shoot them down just in time. It has reportedly been mulling the deployment of combat-proven Patriot interceptors to thwart a potential Chinese missile attack, in addition to other air defense assets.
China’s EW “Kill List”
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) electronic warfare unit has created a list of targets for a coordinated attack on U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups.
This was disclosed in the latest issue of the Chinese magazine Defence Industry Conversion, which is supervised by the State Administration of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defence. The magazine seeks to promote the involvement of civilian organizations and businesses in military technology and arms production.
Mo Jiaqian, an electronic countermeasures expert with the PLA’s 92728 Unit, states in the report that China’s electronic warfare weapons are likely to target specifically labeled U.S. military radars, sensors, and communication systems in a hypothetical battle—all to disrupt the U.S. carrier group’s defensive abilities and render it vulnerable to attack.
“This information can provide references for the development of electronic countermeasures technology and related equipment in China’s future naval battlefields,” Mo Jiaqian writes.
The report examines the functioning and advantages of the U.S. Navy’s Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) system, which is an essential component of its air defense.
“Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) is a real-time sensor netting system that enables high-quality situational awareness and integrated fire control capability. It is designed to enhance the anti-air warfare (AAW) capability of U.S. Navy ships, U.S. Navy aircraft, and U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) Composite Tracking Network (CTN) units by the netting of geographically dispersed sensors to provide a single integrated air picture, thus enabling Integrated Fire Control to destroy increasingly capable threat cruise missiles and aircraft,” according to the U.S. Navy.
The CEC essentially allows ships to unleash ship-to-air missiles for interception, even if their sensors fail to detect an oncoming target. This allows the entire fleet to share air defense resources, which in turn increases survivability.
However, the Chinese researcher points out a “fatal weakness” in the system she wants to exploit. It notes — “It is formed through the networking of phased array radars, which relies on wireless communication links. When the opposing force employs electronic interference, the wireless links are prone to disconnection or disruption.”
The report further states that the AN/SPY-1 phased array radar on Aegis ships is the main target of the PLA’s electronic warfare attacks. The radar, projected as the most sophisticated in the world and capable of identifying all kinds of threats, has been integrated into several destroyers, amphibious assault ships, and even aircraft carriers.
However, the PLA researcher contends that the radar may not be able to compete against some new technologies. She reasons that drones and other emerging platforms can create noise and false targets by approaching the radar, “significantly reducing its detection accuracy and impacting the overall effectiveness of the CEC system.”
Another important target for the PLA is the E-2C Hawkeye early warning aircraft, a potent information-gathering tool that can operate from aircraft carriers. The coordination of the whole U.S. fleet depends heavily on this aircraft.
This makes sense as the Hawkeye, a surveillance aircraft, can also serve as a control and command center by networking with fighter jets, warships, drones, and even satellites in near real-time to draw a real-time battleground picture.
Furthermore, the PLA has designated several U.S. military signal transponders as critical targets, citing the possibility of their exploitation to obtain access to the U.S. military network.
Additionally, the paper provided several methods for “hacking” into the CEC network to wreak havoc. “The opposing force can infiltrate the CEC network as a cooperative unit and launch attacks if they obtain accurate network access information and use the appropriate signaling method to mimic a friendly response,” it states. “Alternatively, continuous access requests can be made to overwhelm one of the CEC nodes with identification tasks, disrupting its operation.”
When asked what this entails for the US, a renowned PLA analyst who did not want to be named told EurAsian Times: “Collecting a list of high-value targets of potential adversaries is something that every competent military does. I think everyone does normal military acts, and people should not be so aghast.”
He further added, “Every competent military is constantly “preparing for war.” Again, the PLA is just doing what everyone does. In this case, the term “preparing for war” refers to “possessing military readiness,” which Western media often likes to mistranslate deliberately.”
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