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Electronic warfare and the Yom Kippur War

Moreover, in the sphere of electronic warfare in the air Israel, along with the US, is considered the leading country in the world and has the most advanced technology.

21.12.2022 725 (0)
Electronic warfare and the Yom Kippur War
Electronic warfare and the Yom Kippur War

One of the areas that has developed particularly as a result of the lessons learned by the Israeli army from the miscalculations of Yom Kippur War has been the field of electronic warfare (EW).

EW is a special form of warfare that doesn’t require rockets or bombs but uses electromagnetic waves to strike and interfere with enemy systems or even completely destroy them, and is currently considered one of the areas in which Israel, with the Almighty will, is one of the world’s leading countries.

Moreover, in the sphere of electronic warfare in the air Israel, along with the US, is considered the leading country in the world and has the most advanced technology.

The reason for this technological success of Israel is, as already mentioned, the Yom Kippur war, or more precisely, the lessons learned from the mistakes and miscalculations made during it. During the war, our air force lost more than 100 airplanes and helicopters — almost a third of the total IAF force was shot down. And that seriously damaged the air force’s ability to support our ground operations from the air.

In order to avoid a similar situation in the future, immediately after the end of the Yom Kippur War the electronic warfare in general, but especially with regard to the Air Force’s means to counter anti-aircraft artillery, surface-to-air missiles and air-to-air missiles, became a top priority in the Israeli army and remains so up to the present day.

Moreover, in the field of electronic warfare at sea and on land Israel has also gained and developed the highest and most unique technological capabilities.

Uncovered EW operations in the Yom Kippur war

In fact, even during the Yom Kippur War itself, electronic warfare was widely applied by the Israeli army. This week, details of several such operations were declassified and made public for the first time. We would like to point out that the issues surrounding electronic warfare have always been treated in Israel as one of the top secret topics. There is no coincidence that only now, almost 50 years later, the public has become aware of some of the operations conducted by the IDF’s electronic warfare units in that war.

One of the most interesting uncovered highlights was the key role the EW unit played in the operation to surround the 3rd Egyptian army.

It is well known that after the Israel Defense Forces crossed the Suez Canal, their forces surrounded the 3rd Egyptian Army, which was nearly half of Egypt’s fighting force, from the rear and flanks.

Numerous Israeli army units took part in this operation. Now it turns out that the EW units were also involved, and effectively stopped the Egyptians from communicating with other Egyptian forces that could have come to their assistance.

Moreover, they also succeeded in cutting off communications between the surrounded Egyptian forces and the command headquarters located in Cairo. Thus, the 3rd Egyptian Army was virtually without the ability to report their condition.

At some point our forces intercepted information that the 25th Brigade, one of the top Egyptian army units at the time, equipped with modern T-62 tanks, was moving to join the 3rd Army to try to break the siege.

After receiving this important information, the Israeli forces were able to ambush and suddenly attack the brigade. In the process of the battle, the soldiers of the Israeli EW unit managed to cut off all communication between the commander of the Egyptian brigade and his battalion commanders, effectively depriving him of the ability to control his forces in this critical battle. Moreover, communication between this top brigade and other Egyptian forces that could have come to its aid was also broken. So it had to fight alone against the Israeli forces that took it by surprise, with the battalions, as already mentioned and disconnected from the central command. As a result, the entire brigade, by the grace and miracles of the Almighty, was completely destroyed.

Electronic warfare — the war of the future

Along with cyber warfare and the application of laser weapons, in my opinion, electronic warfare is one of those types of warfare, which will become more and more important over the years. In fact, such trend has already been observed throughout the last decades, yet hidden from the public eye. Therefore, this type of warfare is becoming more and more important.

The purpose of EW is to neutralize secretly the enemy’s capabilities without physical destruction ( this is why this type of warfare, as already mentioned, is one of the most classified).

In this case, EW is compared to the cyber warfare technology that has been rapidly developing in recent years. Without any tanks or bombs, EW methods are capable of neutralizing or disabling entire units, disconnecting commanders from their soldiers, destroying the radar systems that are now attached to every modern artillery, navy and aircraft unit. Finally in the future the radar systems would be also attached to anti-aircraft guns, tanks and other equipment. In other words, EW results in the neutralization of the enemy army without the need to destroy it.

A large part of our Air Force attacks in Syria (and it is possible that all attacks in general) are carried out under the cover of electronic warfare, engaged both directly from the attacking aircraft, and from special aircraft or helicopters support, equipped with REB systems that allow the attack almost without risk to our pilots, thanks to the successful neutralization of enemy radar and missile systems (even though some of them, such as SA-17 and SA-22, are the most advanced). At the same time, there is no need to physically harm Syrian soldiers. Therefore, the absence of Syrian military casualties allows Syria to “swallow the frog” and not respond to our attacks.

Today, EW systems are being developed to neutralize the combat capabilities of tanks and armored personnel carriers by the use of electronic signals that damage their navigation and fire control systems, as well as paralyze their communication capabilities. There are also experimental solutions to systems that transmit signals to engines and thus block their ability to move.

All of this is a typical Redemption-era war of neutralizing an enemy army without harming any humans.

Translated by D. Bilyayev from Радиоэлектронная борьба и война Судного Дня Comments: 0 Support www.moshiach.ru