Electronic Warfare in Science Fiction

[@Spacedock]

Check out Star Trek Fleet Command and support Spacedock: t2m.io/Spacedock

[@lordrevan571]

How about no.

[@JosephDickson]

As a user of this app I love how it never looks, works, plays or performs anywhere close to what the footage claims.

[@yemmohater2796]

i've waited for this video for so long that i screamed with joy when it dropped

[@MrCMaccc]

I'm sorry, but I genuinely *DON'T* recommend anyone plays STFC. The grinding is abysmal, lots of bugs that just don't get fixed and the monetization of the game is ridiculous and has no sense behind it and their support team takes weeks to respond to any kind of issue. Plus, the game locks you to a server after a certain level, after you actually have a chance to learn about it, and a bad server and literally kill any chance you have to make progress. Oh, and promo codes like this one have about a 50% chance to just not work on a new account, with support refusing to do anything about it or fix the issue. Don't play this game. Support Spacedock, but don't play STFC

[@orcaman1353]

I already have Star Trek fleet command but I will request a breakdown on the aircraft carrier from paw patrol the mighty movie

[@vonneely1977]

I think the Battletech universe encapsulates the issues best: Yes, EW exists but it's a higher tier of rulesets for more advanced players, while more casual players are free to ignore them.

[@templarw20]

I joked on a BT video that cramming a Raven's EW suite into a Charger would make for a REALLY funny Wild Weasel mech...

[@Zeeke01]

​@@templarw20I am totally going to try this... This is going to be a fun horror movie in a way

[@vortega472]

@vonneely1977 - While I like where you are going - I'm going to argue - for the best Space Battle using Electronic Counter Measures (ECW) and even ECCM (Counter-Counter) you want to check out Star Fleet Battles, they dive very deep into that. Battletech is amazing and a heavy-heavy rules battle game - but if you dig that you are in heaven - and you will be in that with SFB.

[@SkywalkerWroc]

Even some of the Battletch games tried to reproduce aspects of the more advanced EW. With Mechwarrior: Living Legends being a big lighlight of that.

[@RRVCrinale]

@@templarw20 Still results in a weapons platform whose motto is "You gotta be f'n kiddin' me," I hope!

[@wraith1771]

“Cue the Spaceballs clip“ Damn man, that was the perfect combination of timing, delivery, and the clip used. I had to pause the video because I was laughing so hard.

[@isaackim7675]

Lonestar!

[@ag7898]

I can't explain how disappointed I was going to be if the clip, or even a passing reference, wasn't used to that scene.

[@greensteve9307]

I'd just re-watched Spaceballs a few hours ago! xD

[@TheBladeOfTheVoid]

We lost the bleeps the sweeps and the creeps

[@padawanmage71]

I remember in Bablyon 5, John Sheridan mention during the war, no Earthforce ship could lock on to any Minbari ship given it had some form of 'stealth' capability. In a later episode, a renegade Minbari cruiser intentionally turned off its stealth as it wanted to fight with humans in a bid to die in battle.

[@hanzzel6086]

Ahh, yes, Minbari stealth tech. Also known as the only reason the Minbari only suffered single digit ship losses. Because without it a Nova and Shoalin are pretty evenly matched, and Earthforce had *a lot* of Novas.

[@jasongillespie8933]

That's the same episode. its his introductory episode. season 2 episode one. That's what clued him in something was wrong.

[@artembentsionov]

@@hanzzel6086actually, the Nova had a very short range with its heavy plasma guns, while a Sharlin could turn it to scrap with its antimatter beam from a long distance. So it wasn’t just the stealth tech. The first human ship that could stand toe-to-toe with the Sharlin is the Warlock. I’m guessing the Excalibur is also up there

[@hanzzel6086]

@@artembentsionov A significant part of that short range was having to manually aim them using the Mark-1 eyeball. While the Shoalin was longer ranged, without it's "stealth" a Nova actually stood s chance of getting in range. Admittedly, it would probably take at least two (or three) in order to reliably get one into range reasonably intact, but I'm pretty sure Earthforce had (at least at the start) those numbers. And the Minbari were already horrified by the unsustainable levels of causalitys they where taking (because they basically couldn't afford any, because they hadn't actually built a warship in a millenia), so, yeah a very different and quicker end to that war.

[@Ishlacorrin]

@@hanzzel6086 No the range issue was mostly Plasma vs Fusion Beams. Plasma does not have a very long range at all, the Minbari "slicer beams" on the other hand did. The Minbari also had the bad habit of waiting till the EA ships fired before killing them. In a serious war without stealth tech, the EA would have lost even harder than they did. At no point in the Earth Minbari war did the Minbari take the humans seriously. If they ever decided to... I shudder to think. Remember they have been in space thousands of years longer and have anti-matter as a by product of their power generation and a backup obsolete tech while the EA is not even up to using anti-matter at all yet. That is a MASSIVE difference in power, by several magnitudes. At their first meeting the main Minbari ship was hit by dozens of Plasma, pulse cannon and laser hits and only lost a small number of people, conversely a single slicer beam hit kills or cripples any and all EA ships.

[@Echowhiskeyone]

One of my favorite subjects. Electronic Warfare was my Rate in the US Navy. It is easily misunderstood and overlooked.

[@marsar1775]

your rate was my autistic hyperfixation for a few years! It is too easily overloooked, but theres a group of nerds eager for scraps i promise ya

[@Shaun_Jones]

Which is probably a contributing factor to why it’s overlooked, because a lot of the information about what EW does and how it works is classified.

[@toddkes5890]

Perum had a video talking about what items were doing more than their fair share in the Russian invasion of Ukraine (both sides). On the Russian side their EW vehicles (Krasukha?) were ranked top of the list as they kept Ukrainian drones from getting near enough to target artillery on other Russian formations. Thought you might like that ranking.

[@Sm1lingRussian]

Trying to explain people that EW isn't a magical shield that automatically disable weapons in working radius is pretty hard

[@Santisima_Trinidad]

The thing with electronic warfare, is that when your side is winning you don't/barely notice it exists, but when the enemy is winning you likely only notice after it's resulted in you get blown up or shot.

[@JustABalrog]

I can't believe Nebulous fleet command wasn't mentioned once in this video! EW is a huge part of that game, with you being able to put radar jammers and countermeasures on your ship to disrupt your enemy's detection capabilities and to defeat enemy missiles.

[@hoojiwana]

I cannot believe I completely forgot about Nebulous when we were making this video, it was the original inspiration for doing a video on this topic in the first place! - hoojiwana from Spacedock

[@televized1781]

@@hoojiwana very sad best Ewar game not included

[@hoojiwana]

@@televized1781 Forgive me

[@TheChaosCorvid]

@@hoojiwana It's funny because when you mentioned using stealth in conjunction with EW to increase the noise and make stealth easier, I was immediately reminded of one of my builds in that game which does exactly that.

[@comradeblin256]

Or even funnier, a battleship that masquerade as a Destroyer, and a destroyer that emits signature of a battleship 😂 Ah yes, my autistic stealth battleship that have speed of a space turtle... sadly the OSP autism mine spam was useless in newer updates...

[@StormWalden]

Several of the Gundam series have the Mobile Suit power plants double as electromagnetic jammers, usually by emitting some sort of macguffin particle or wave (e.g. Minovsky Particles in UC, GN Particles in 00, Ahab Particles & Ahab Waves in IBO) that prevents the employment of long-range guided munitions.

[@catsfrommars]

In some Gundam Universes, it also prevented Nuclear Fission so it effectively made nuclear weapons obsolete (looking at you SEED)

[@granmastersword]

Not just preventing the use of long range guided munition, but also targeting and wireless communication, difficulting coordination and effectively making remote controlled weapons like drones useless

[@justinjacobs1501]

I like that it Minovsky interference was an accidental byproduct of the reactor while also being the thing that made close range space combat viable in the canon.

[@Attaxalotl]

Some earlier Star Wars novels handwave the dogfights by explaining that everyone's electronic warfare is too good and homing missiles are basically useless, except for all the ones that aren't.

[@Boopity7739]

Modern Star Wars goes even harder on this, ironically. The canon explanation as to why TIE Fighter targeting is so weird is literally that the ECM of the other fighter fights against the TIEs targeting system. Thrawn also says the reason ships have such exposed bridges is because all sensors can easily be jammed or spoofed, so you need to actually see normally

[@randomusernameCallin]

The beyond visable range missles I guess.

[@littlekong7685]

The ones that work are super expensive, massive thrust capacity, droid brained missiles. Everything else is basically visual range supported or dummy so as to avoid it being turned off or turned against the user. If it is cheaper to fly a dozen fighters close and launch bombs with the same strike efficiency, then why not do that.

[@randomusernameCallin]

@@Boopity7739 Ghost

[@caelestigladii]

@@littlekong7685But not use droid missiles?

[@Tyr666Thor]

One of the sci-fi which puts the most focus on EW I can think of is Heavy Gear. Where all of the mechs have some EW equipment as a defensive layer and then most mech squads and companies will have a few dedicated EW platforms for more powerful/specilised/offensive work.

[@SymbioteMullet]

I played a bunch of heavy gear 2 back in the day, and it was always a good question as to how much ECM and ECCM to put on your mech... The ECM package would usually screw your radar up when it was on full power, so it had to be used carefully to be stealthy but still have info on your enemy. Btw, this is the PC game, not the tabletop.

[@lanetaylor3900]

Heavy gear did a good job with that, for sure. I think Nebulous: Fleet Command models EW warfare even better.

[@LionStein]

Loved the brief inclusion of EVE Online, would love to see you do videos about analyzing EVE!

[@Maeldruin]

In the Expeditionary Force series, there are a handful of scenes from the POV of some heavily upgraded missiles where they talk to each other (literally) and sacrifice some missiles to blind enemy sensors so the remaining missiles can reach the target, or have one missile blasting out active sensors to provide guidance to stealth missiles so they can get through enemy point defense. A huge part of the series combat is centered on electronic warfare, including hacking enemy ships. IT's an excellent series and well worth the read. One faction in the Lost Fleet series uses computer worms planted in enemy ships to erase any evidence of them being there, giving them the appearance of being very good at stealth.

[@hughsmith7504]

One great example of EW was in the Battle of Chintaka in Deep Space Nine. The used their own systems to trick the weapon platforms into reading the power station as an enemy combatant.

[@vincediscombe7360]

An interesting take on scifi EW comes in the form of Eldar holofield and cameleoline tech. Both obviously have visual-based elements, a cameleoline cloak is basically an active-camo cape for a soldier to hide under meanwhile holofields are, well, hologram emitters that hide the ship and project an image of it in a different location. The EW aspect comes in when we consider that in 40k, auspex (equivalent to radar/sonar) is widely used across imperial forces, from navy sensors and weapon targeting to handheld infantry versions to vehicle-mounted arrays. Holofield emitters contain targeter-confusing and auspex-baffling technologies, meaning you're essentially firing blind and looking for auspex "ghosts" (partial/glitchy returns, which only appear intermittently if at all), meanwhile on the infantry level, cameleoline has nanotech weaved into the physical cloak itself which distorts all but the most powerful auspex returns making it almost impossible to find the wearer simply through scanning. In both cases you're forced to either try and eyeball it (hard enough in an infantry fight, basically impossible in a starship battle), or make educated guesses AND know what you're looking out for, OR know exactly where the eldar are hiding and focus all detection efforts on that area.

[@Demolitiondude]

There's only one man who dares give me the raspberry. SPACEDOCK!

[@ryanedgerton1982]

Surprised you didn't mention the use of electronic anti-hijacking measures, such as Kirk's infamous use of the USS Reliance's prefix code to remotely trigger the other ship to drop their shields. Seems like a major pertinent example of electronic warfare in scifi.

[@templarw20]

That's probably a VERY good example of the hacking type, before that sort of thing was in popular culture.

[@LS-001]

A relate sci-fi trope would be drive signatures. where ships drives or reactors have a, depending on the setting, a more or less unique fingerprint by which they can be identified. This makes it desirebable to change the drive signature in one way or the other. Or to use decoys if the signature are less specific and/or not know to the enemy.

[@gabrielfalcao2952]

Like the Pella in the Expanse's finale

[@Nairat]

One of THE BEST examples I've seen of this, is in the anime Mouretsu Kaizoku (Bodacious Space Pirates). Almost all ships have EW Suites designed to protect, counter, and attack other ship's systems, and are pivotal in battles, as the EW specialists have to balance between preventing system intrusion while disrupting enemy ships with their own intrusion, causing ship weapon accuracy to dynamically shift over the course of battle. They also depict it visually in a simple enough way for the viewer to understand what is happening. There is even a point where one opponent gets hacked too fast, so they turn off all methods of intrusion and fly blind, relying purely on visual means to track their target.

[@robertmartinu8803]

Reminds me of "A Fire upon the Deep", though a somewhat more aggressive flavour of electronic warfare. Or Giant's Star It seems more broadly literature is more likely to go into that direction.

[@CTXSLPR]

EW comes in to play in the Honorverse, both the signature reduction to get closer in the ambush at Hancock Station and also the active where the untrained Masadans put the active EW on auto to confuse the missiles till the Weapons officer catches on and smashes contact nukes into the transmitters by having them seek the jammers since they were repeating a pattern.

[@Sephiroth144]

And of course, the ECW/ECCW arms race between Haven and Manticore throughout their wars, especially dealing with missile guidance and ship to missile comms.

[@nicholaswalsh4462]

God Honorverse is so good.

[@Kitkat-986]

Nebulous Fleet Command has some excellent EW mechanics. A powerful jammer can overwhelm enemy sensors and hide your ships, enabling you to move in relative stealth, although the enemy will absolutely know they are being jammed. Jamming is also effective at both decreasing the accuracy of enemy missile salvos, and also at screening your own missiles by hiding their signature from enemy fire control radars. Some expensive missiles even carry their own radar jammers and chaff decoys to overwhelm enemy fire control radar and screen for the missile salvos.

[@johncee853]

No mention of Wraith jamming the Asgard beaming tech? Disappointed! 😂

[@MaybeNotARobot]

Very funny to include the Unicorn Gundam's NT-D system here, because, despite its usual function of increasing the performance of the mobile suit when active in response to a Newtype, at higher outputs(?) of the system, its pilot has taken control of enemy remote weapons in a manner similar to hacking, with less computers and more psychic powers. Interestingly enough, a better example of electronic warfare in the Gundam Franchise is in The Witch From Mercury, in which multiple mobile suits, most notably the Aerial Rebuild in conjunction with Quiet Zero (whose function would most likely be defined as an electronic warfare platform), make use of 'data storms' to disrupt and take control of enemy weapons.

[@williamroche5249]

Minovsky Particles are also basically EW as well. It's just absurdly powerful and indiscriminate to the point of shifting the entire military doctrine of the setting

[@TheFreakedoutduck]

Yeah Minovsky Particles are basically why Mobile Suits and Battleships in the Universal Century have to get close to fight. In the real world it would take away the advantage of aircraft like the F-22, who normally could kill beyond visual range, forcing a lot more dogfights.

[@damonhawkes2057]

That boer war example is sooo fascinating

[@Sephiroth144]

The ECM/ECCM arms race between the Manticoran and Havenite forces in the Honorverse went into some details of the Electronic Warfare- as well as other angles, like the Keyhole and Apollo systems, (deployed sensor platforms and missile system which had a sensor relay platform "missile" with the damaging missiles in the swarm)

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

That hovering rocket looks like my first attempt at a proper rocket in space engineers

[@omganotherun]

The Honor Harrington book series makes great use of EW in space fleet battles. For a time, long range missile exchanges dominated, overshadowing much shorter range beam fire. EW was king with vast arrays of decoys and such giving the hi tech advantage. The lower tech side eventually countered with the "Triple Ripple", a barrage of crude nuclear warheads with no target at all beyond X volume of space. Not enough to damage heavily shielded ships, sure, but all the external/remote fancy electronic doodads in that volume ate sht. This turned the subsequent battle into a low tech analog slugging match.

[@Levi_Skardsen]

In Battlestar Galactica, battle scenes where the Pegasus was involved showed incoming missiles going haywire when in proximity of Pegasus. This would've been due to their ECM systems, and was a subtle way of showing how much more advanced the ship was than Galatica.

[@kineticdeath]

i've messed a bit with the idea of some form of remote hacking, not so much to take over the target like BSG but more to just degrade the targets combat capabilities and interfering with targeting. Also since space tracking is going to heavily rely on tracking targets via heat sources such as IR i've pondered things like massive space flares during which the targeted ship switches off its drive(s) and uses low heat thrusters or rcs to nudge itself onto a new course. We see similar in the Expanse where ships kill transponders and drives and sneakily maneuver onto a new course, but without the "flares"

[@chaingun1701]

Electronic warfare is a major part of space combat in Honor Harrington. My favorite are the Manticoran Dragon's Teeth EW platforms, they are basically missles that create the illusion of dozens of other missles to fool counter missles and laser clusters.

[@deltaforce4361]

I love the EW in The Last Angel series, very fun, especially the upper levels of hyper advanced powerful yet ‘dumb’ computers vs nimbler and adaptive AI’s

[@Croz89]

I think IR spoofing/camouflage might be a interesting technology that would be highly useful for space warfare. I believe it's already being experimented with on tanks to disguise them as trucks when looked at using IR cameras. For a spacecraft, making your warship look like a freighter or support vessel on the enemy's cameras is rather handy.

[@michaellewis1545]

One example is from the movie Wing Commander, where the Killwrathy fire a torpedo the Cloaks travels to its target while from time to time uncloaking to gets it bearing.

[@cukooman7]

The Skipper missile

[@Marinealver]

"Of course they are jamming us, do you expect our enemies to stop behaving like enemies, why do you think we have assigned courier shuttles?" -Kaiser Longarm Von Reinhard of the Galactic Empire.

[@ABlueJelly]

Wild Weasels mentioned! Part of my favorite lore behind them is their "unofficial" motto, YGBSM. As in, "You've Gotta Be Shittin' Me", after the immediate, reflexive, and honestly *correct* remark upon hearing their mission plan from one Jack Donovan, a veteran B-52 EWO who was assigned to the Weasels for one of their earliest missions. Full quote per Lt. Col. Dan Hampton's memoir: "You want me to fly in the back of a tiny little jet with a crazy fighter pilot who thinks he's invincible, home in on a SAM site in North Vietnam, and shoot it before it shoots me? You've gotta be shittin' me!"

[@ndfgaming6824]

Idk about shows ot movies but nebulous fleet command has probably the most realistic depiction of EWAR, you've got jamming, home on jam, etc

[@leftoverthoughts2275]

Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex has online guided missiles, for some insane reason. The runaway tank in the second episode has an EW package that can connect to them, hack them and has a 60% + chance of sending the missile back into the shooters face. A Sky Full of Ships has a supplement containing a faction which can use EW; Full Thrust has other ways, including EMP batteries. Quadrant 13 by TooFatLardies has the option of assigning an EW technician to your units; They can use specialist sensors, jam comms, if their tech level is 2 higher than the enemy they can attempt to disrupt equipment, and attempt to disrupt enemy operators.

[@colinsmith1495]

I particularly loved the Babylon 5 example, where the Minbari warship active sensors were so powerful they blinded the human sensors (active or passive) thus effectively becoming jammers.

[@artembentsionov]

Also interferes with their hyperdrives. It’s how the war started. The Minbari flagship scanned the human fleet, unaware at how primitive their systems were. The humans thought it was an attack, especially with the Minbari opening their gunports (without charging weapons) in the Warrior Caste’s traditional gesture of peace, except humans couldn’t tell weapons weren’t charging because of the unintentional jamming. It didn’t help that the CO was said to have a bad track record with sensitive missions. The human volley damaged the Minbari flagship, killing their spiritual leader. The Grey Council was tied on whether to declare a holy war on the humans or investigate what happened. The leader’s protégé cast the deciding vote in anger, starting the war

[@ChadZLumenarcus]

To give a very simplified explanation of how a radar or sensors work, Imagine being in a dark room and using a flashlight in order to see something. That flashlight is a good representation of how radar works with your eyes being the sensors.

[@skylerstevens8887]

Going low tech these same things apply. For instance the Red Herring was used to distract the noses of dogs. The sensor being the dogs and the Red Herring being the countermeasure.

[@cocothnda]

Minovsky particles in Mobile Suit Gundam were always cool to see. Both sides during the one year war would flood battle zones with the particles in order to jam radar

[@harry_ord]

Also meant everrything was via visual identification. Zeta, ZZ and CCA made great use of decoy ships, suits and asteroids since electronic idenification was so hard.

[@chrisbingley]

A real world example that I loved was during Desert Storm. Elements of the British and American forces drove around the desert behind the Iraqi lines broadcasting to each other. Iraq troops could detect that the signals were coming from behind them. In addtion to the actual coalition comms that were coming from in front of them. I imagine that it was a bit unnerving.

[@Aounfather1]

Like the couple of seconds of B5 in here. The major contributor to Earth “losing” in the minbary war was that they couldn’t target the enemy ships.

[@moguera]

In the anime, Bodacious Space Pirates (the title is sometimes translated as Miniskirt Space Pirates), electronic warfare plays a HUGE role in space battles, to the point that entire battles can be decided before a single shot is fired by well-used EW or ECW. In particular, a lot of attention is given to how the proper use of signals can be used to hijack control of targeted ships, giving the one doing the hijacking complete control of the other ship’s systems, including propulsion, weapons, and life support. For a series about a high school girl inheriting a space-pirate captaincy, it adds quite a bit of depth and nuance to the setting and the battles that take place therein.

[@khrdina]

At 5:17 that is the USS Rancocas (aka "the Cornfield Cruiser").

[@isaackim7675]

My favorite moment when radars or scanners is being jammed is Spaceballs with literal jam. And it’s raspberry

[@silverjohn6037]

3:04 Only one man would dare to give me the raspberry! LO..O..O..NESTAR!

[@leoryff979]

You don't see it much in modern series, but I recall the original Gundam used inflatable decoys to distract long range scanning and detecting. Mostly in the shape of asteroids, IIRC.

[@Hyperious_in_the_air]

the Expeditionary Force novel series has a huge focus on EWar. Great audiobook series!

[@iainbaker6916]

The Blue Planet: War in Heaven campaign for FreeSpace Open features EW quite extensively - sensor jamming, stealth ships, flares, electronic countermeasures, uploading viruses, hacking, comms manipulation, AWACS and E-warfare craft etc.

[@Supermuffin5000]

In The Honor Harrington Series, EW plays a big part and is also refered to as EW

[@captaincrooked9051]

There is an anime called Bodacious Space Pirates, which features remotely hacking enemy vessels and defending against such attacks as a key element of space combat.

[@justDIY]

The hard sci-fi book series Expeditionary Force involves a lot of space based electronic warfare. It does push the boundary of the hard sci-fi genre, since the main character is an artificial super intelligence that's millions of years more advanced than any of its adversaries. Still a fun read with lots of plausible physics involved.

[@Cyberleader135]

In the classic Doctor Who episode “Earthshock” the doctor manages to jam a bomb detonation signal sent by the Cybermen leading to very hammy “MORE POWER” from David Banks as the Cyberleader

[@frankharr9466]

It's nice to have it all together.

[@christiangarcia5348]

You could have brought up gundams use of things like Minovsky and GN particles and jamms communications and guided weapons. In U.C. a way to counter minovsky jamming is to use laser communication as seein in Unicorn with the EWAC Jegan. Also how in OO GN particles naturally jam normal comms but the Human Reform League used that to their advantage by placing a bunch of com buoys and waited for the connection to cut in order to find the Ptolemaios.

[@getnohappy]

Don't forget the prefix code manoeuvre in Wrath of Khan!

[@Zalta-gg4es]

The Mantis in Star Citizen

[@purplespeckledappleeater8738]

Nice. I was just thinking about electronic and cyber warfare in a fight between a Venator II and an ISD.

[@certhass]

i've recently ready a sci-fi series where lasers were sloley used for communication and WE warware e.g. via blinding sensors or even uploading viruses via enemy ship sensors

[@doodledibob]

“Dampening Fields” in Star Trek serve much the same role - a technology you turn on to hide it from tricorders

[@Cyberlisk]

What about EMPs? That was the first thing that came to my mind when reading the title.

[@pauln6917]

The Honor Harrington novels by David Weber feature electronic warfare prominently in the space combat sequences.

[@NCHSNAFUBR]

Moretsu Pirates has electronic warfare as hacking typically. The main character is really attached to the concept.

[@torymiddlebrooks]

Thank god we got the Space Balls clip.

[@SergeantPsycho]

I think Star Trek might have a version of this, generally involving modifying the deflector dish to do something.

[@RocketPropelledMexican]

Can you take a look at Children of a Dead Earth? It's a very niche space warfare game with a focus on realism (although the devs heavily nerfed lasers)

[@dirus3142]

Star Trek has a few examples. The old Star Fleet Battles table top ship game had an EW component. Star Fleet Command the PC game adaptation of that game had one as well. Then there is The Wrath of Khan. Spock used knowledge of Star Fleet EW to communicate with Reliant's computer to lower it's shields. Expanded novels of Star Trek used the Romulan war that took place before TOS to explain the difference between the 60s set design, and the Star Trek Enterprise's set design. Star Fleet switched to hardened analog systems compared to the past because the Romulan's hacked Federation systems. Basicly doing what Spock did in WoK.

[@khandimahn9687]

One thing I don't think any media ever takes account for is that an active cloaking system, that either bends light around you or makes you outright invisible, would also make you effectively blind! Since the light isn't reaching your sensors - it's either going around, or through you.

[@HalynSanshir]

Timothy Zahn actually used that very specifically as a weakness to cloaking devices in the Heir to the Empire trilogy - cloaks were specifically double-blind, with someone inside a cloak being unable to see out. They were still useful, but not in the typical ways.

[@Shadx27]

The anime series, Bodacious Space Pirates, uses Electronic Warfare quite a bit.

[@neruval8998]

Great video. I find it absolutely hilarious though that you essentially classiffied laser weapons as electronic warfare.

[@reganator5000]

I think some of the constraints in sci-fi end up being very setting dependent. A good example is how, in real life, delta-v constraints cause there to be very little point to EWS in space . Modern & realistically proposed spacecraft are locked into their orbital patterns, and FTL is non-existent, so there's no reason that a ship looking for an 'enemy' vessel couldn't just look up where it was, and extrapolate almost completely accurately (as it's impossible to hide when your engines are turned on. Even with all the radar jamming in the world, you are a clearly visible light in the sky). And if you're wrong, generally the target's already dead, either it's not there because it hit a rock or because it tried too hard to change course and is now going to spend a few decades floating out of the solar system.

[@90lancaster]

I guess there is various techniques to con someone into turning their Radar on full power so a Rader Guided Missile can then home in on it. Or how people get given phones by "Friendly people who really do have their best interests in mind" only to use that mobile phone signal to direct a missile to the target.

[@paulcadden4967]

You could say Gundam uses it, with both tactical use of N jammers and Minovsky partial spreading to disrupt communications and tracking/targeting systems

[@zj6074]

Players of Nebulous Fleet Command will know the importance of both chaff & radar jamming in space warfare.

[@Artinthedark83]

Good video, and on the topic of EW in space, I know it's a stretch but there's an anime called like space pirate babes, or something. Highschool student space pirates basically. But they cover ew really well

[@Eboreg2]

Cyberwarfare can be an incredibly effective covert first-strike weapon. Something like ballistic or cruise missiles that your enemy won't know about until they've already struck. The problem with this is that using viruses to target your enemy will notify them about the vulnerability you've exploited and cause them to patch it. There's also the danger of your virus being discovered and removed before you get a chance to use it. In this sense, cyberwarfare can be very effective in the initial stages of a war but as it goes on, the effectiveness of cyberwarriors will be greatly diminished.

[@The_Brainsturgeon]

There was this Anime called Bodacious Space Pirates and the bridge of the hero ship had a dedicated EW station, helmed by a female otaku/hikikomori hacker.

[@SuperFailzocker]

I wonder whether perception filters from Doctor Who can also count as electronic warfare or whether they are more stealth technology. It is never explained how they actually work, but perhaps they are electromagnetic fields that have an influence on the brain and perhaps also on electronics (in the case of robots). Perception filters ensure that a certain thing or person is either not perceived at all (or unconsciously ignored) or that it is perceived or not perceived as something specific. The manipulation of memories can also be part of this. The Tardis is equipped with a perception filter that ensures that nobody is surprised by a strange-looking blue box, even if it appears at a time long before police emergency call boxes were invented. Although a Tardis is already equipped with a chameleon circuit that allows it to transform into almost any object, the Doctor's Tardis has a faulty chameleon circuit and the perception filter may serve as a kind of backup system. However, a perception filter can be bypassed if you specifically look for one or pay attention to inconsistencies in the surroundings. Even people who have activated the perception filter or are aware of the hidden object before activating the filter are not affected. And there are probably also people/beings who are completely immune to it!

[@jgehman]

The Honor Harrington series, by David Weber, uses a lot of EW. It's a major part of nearly every battle, and the winners won for a lot of reasons but primarily due to better EW tech.

[@thequantumnexus4270]

Some modern tanks have a device that generates white noise to disrupt the signal to remote detonated mines. There was also an example in a TMG book I read once (can't remember the name, it was a about a colony that had come to augment the population due to low population numbers and everyone decided to attack them). They sprayed nanites at enemy ships which were meant to hack and shut them down. Data's hacking the Borg through Picard in Best of Both Worlds is also an example.

[@jukebox_heroperson3994]

Russia is also trying out a device on individual tanks and vehicles that cuts out signals to FPV drones

[@NonEuclideanTacoCannon]

I had a dream where I was a EW engineer on a space ship. My job was to design fresh silicon for each mission or engagement. I had a sort of software that let me place different kinds of processor cores and gate arrays and buses and pipelines, like game of Factorio. Then I'd print it out and install it in the EW officer's console.

[@Vivicect0r]

Its fun how I was building tethered rocket propelled flare for my ships in From the Depth as a very effective anti-missile countermeasure. Then, I see that very thing in your video =)

[@reklessbravo2129]

The Honor Harrington books cover EW a lot. Better technology is one of Manticore's greatest advantages, and there's a lot about utilizing and countering electronic warfare on all sides

[@pavelplanzo7460]

Patlabor 2 mentioned

[@templarw20]

An odd use of EW id in the Rifts RPG setting, where the psychic "cyber knights" have a unique ability to mess with enemy targeting systems. In the Savage Worlds version, it makes them VERY effective close range can openers. Also, several missions in Wing Commander Prophecy had your fighter loaded with a LOT of anti-radiation missiles to soften up the defenses of a particularly hard target.

[@jonathan_60503]

Not so useful in space, but tanks use smoke grenade launchers to quickly, if temporarily, block visible light hiding them from optically aimed or guided weapons. And with the right multispectral smoke in those grenades the resulting brief smokescreens can also block infrared light; which would additionally hide them from IR aimed or guided weapons.

[@Just_Some_Person]

Hooray for sponsors!

[@ARockRaider]

i think with the level of interconectedness that modern armies are going hacking is a more and more real threat, espessially if you find a hardware level attack vector. all locks have keys, all codes are made to be decoded, a strong enough computer can brute force thought given enough time.

[@vp21ct]

The fact you didn't show a single frame of Nebulous: Fleet Command is a shame.

[@bancalda]

the Honor Harrington universe put a lot of focus on electronic warfare, I would be curious to have your feedback on it

[@briankuczynski6884]

Anyone else think genre media would have gone in a completely different direction if we'd gotten straight adaptations of the Thrawn trilogy starting in 1999?

[@watcher98]

If you're fighting stealth craft in space and radar fails you, search for magnetic distortions or heightened electric fields in space to find the sneaky ships 🙃

[@thomasfplm]

Jamming communications is quite common in sci-fi. And would you say that holograms like the "T-27 Decoy package" from Halo would be a form of electronic warfare?

[@StellariumSound]

Nebulous Fleet Command players watching all this and nodding.

[@hoojiwana]

I cannot believe I completely forgot about Nebulous when we were making this video, it was the original inspiration for doing a video on this topic in the first place! - hoojiwana from Spacedock

[@furagnar]

Minovski particles from Mobile Suit Gundam UC timeline.

[@mdsx01]

I hate that this is a subject that I know a lot about, and it's really cool, but I'm not allowed to talk about most of it.

[@MrCMaccc]

Not really a normal type of content, but the Tabletop Roleplaying Game LANCER featues a lot of EW. Each mech has it's own E-Defense rating, which is seperate from getting hit by normal attacks. Some mechs have weak computers or low sensors, while some have stronger computers and better sensors and are thus more effective at EW. And EW is basically hacking al la Battlestar

[@rikuurufu5534]

Wild Weasel missions are not what you said. The term refers specifically and only to the technique of allowing yourself to be fired upon by SAMs and evading the missiles, with the intent of forcing the enemy to waste their ammunition. It does not involve acquiring their signals and firing back with anti-radiation missiles; that is just generic SEAD.

[@megagamernick9883]

I think the only real examples from EW from Star Wars is interdictor technology that jams and redirects missiles and torpedoes to missing their targets. Another is hacking drones in Infinite Warfare literally taking the enemy’s soldiers and using them against one another