Los pa\u00edses europeos de la OTAN est\u00e1n considerando el uso de drones para operaciones a\u00e9reas de guerra electr\u00f3nica, incluida la interferencia de radar, una habilidad de la que carecen actualmente muchas de las fuerzas a\u00e9reas europeas.<\/p>\n
PARIS \u2014 European NATO countries are eyeing drones for airborne electromagnetic-warfare operations including radar jamming, a skill many of the continent\u2019s air forces are currently lacking.<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s Leonardo says between ten and twenty NATO countries have expressed interest in a capability similar to the StormShroud radar-jammer drone it provided to the U.K.<\/p>\n
Leonardo has taken a lead in radar-jamming drones<\/a>\u00a0with StormShroud, built around the company\u2019s BriteStorm jammer on an unmanned aerial system from Portugal\u2019s Tekever. U.S., European and Israeli rivals will be presenting some of their airborne electronic warfare offerings at the Paris Air Show starting here on Monday.<\/p>\n Europe largely depends on the U.S. for airborne electromagnetic warfare, a gap some countries are looking to address amid uncertainty about American commitment to the continent. Meanwhile, an aggressive Russia has been expanding capabilities based on its experience in Ukraine, where drones are omni-present, including in the electronic-warfare role.<\/p>\n Ukraine \u201chas become a drone war with drone and counter-drones, and electronic jamming is part of that,\u201d said Dick Zandee, senior research fellow at Dutch think tank Clingendael Institute and former head of planning at the European Defence Agency. \u201cYou see a \u2018dronization\u2019 taking place in a lot of areas now, including in electronic warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n European NATO countries face a \u201ccritical\u201d capability gap in airborne electromagnetic warfare, a potential risk in case of Russian aggression, analyst Justin Bronk at the U.K.\u2019s Royal United Services Institute said in a report in March.<\/p>\n Bronk called for European countries to lift funding to develop stand-in airborne electromagnetic attack capabilities, based on \u201crelatively cheap\u201d uncrewed autonomous systems that can loiter over hostile territory and would be a quick way to expand their capabilities.<\/p>\n Leonardo has received \u201csignificant interest\u201d in BriteStorm from NATO countries as well as defense primes, according to Michael Lea, the company\u2019s vice president of sales for electronic warfare. Lea added he doesn\u2019t expect any public announcement before the fourth quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n There is \u201cclearly the desire from some European nations to not be as dependent on the U.S. as they have been previously,\u201d Lea said.<\/p>\n The executive declined to name possible drone partners, but noted Leonardo has ties with drone makers including General Atomics, the maker of the MQ-9 Reaper, and Turkish Aerospace Industries. While Leonardo won\u2019t showcase StormShroud in Paris, it will be holding a signing ceremony for a joint venture with Turkish drone maker Baykar Technologies on Monday.<\/p>\n Stand-in radar jamming is typically in close proximity to hostile air-defense systems, as opposed to long-range stand-off jamming outside of weapons-engagement zone. Escort jamming is typically used to protect the own forces from enemy air defenses.<\/p>\n Countries in Eastern Europe including Poland face threats with a \u201cvery extended range, so you are into stand-in jamming the moment you get airborne,\u201d Lea said. \u201cThey can\u2019t do stand-off jamming because they\u2019re inside the threat envelope of adversary systems.\u201d<\/p>\n Drone-based stand-in jammers are cheaper, attritable, and potentially more effective by operating closer to the threat, which means that in the European theater of operations they may be a better solution than stand-off jamming, according to Lea. Still, the two approaches are complimentary and will continue to exist together, the executive said.<\/p>\n One thing Ukraine has shown is that uncrewed capabilities planned to accompany sixth-generation fighter aircraft need to become available \u201cfar earlier,\u201d with systems such as StormShroud allowing fourth and fifth-generation fighters to be more effective and operate more freely.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you can have a larger number of electronic-warfare, decoy and deception platforms, that has a value in itself, and that has absolutely been demonstrated in Ukraine,\u201d Lea said. \u201cI can absolutely see how you can solve a mass challenge with uncrewed platforms that allows the four-generation platform to operate as it was intended at the start of its design case.\u201d<\/p>\n The trend is to move the anti-radar mission to drones because the size and recognizability of aircraft makes them easier to detect and therefore take down, as well as \u201cterribly expensive,\u201d Zandee said. \u201cSo, you do that kind of thing with drones.\u201d<\/p>\n Leonardo has an advantage in being able to declare an operational capability in radar-jamming drones with the Royal Air Force, though Lea expects announcements from competitors within the next 12 months.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a result of the very urgent requirement to operate in a contested electronic warfare environment, a lot of companies are trying to tackle this challenge,\u201d Lea said. \u201cWe would be complacent to think that other competitors aren\u2019t developing their products in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n Raytheon makes the MALD-J, a jamming variant of its expendable decoy missile which the company says is the first-ever stand-in jammer to enter production. Leonardo meanwhile is working with pan-European missile maker MBDA to develop the Spear-EW stand-in jammer missile for the U.K.<\/p>\n At the Paris Air Show, Raytheon will present its Next Generation Jammer, a long-range jammer for the U.S. Navy\u2019s E\/A-18 Growler electronic-warfare aircraft. The Navy declared initial operational capability for the mid-range band version of the system in December.<\/p>\n Modern Western radar-jamming systems including BriteStorm and MALD use Digital Radio Frequency Memory, which allows a jammer to record incoming radar signal and retransmit them with modifications, creating false targets and signals or just overwhelming the enemy system with noise.<\/p>\n The work on StormShroud is based on the BriteCloud digital decoy ordered by the U.S. for the F-35, also used by the U.K. on the Eurofighter and available as an option on the Saab Gripen.<\/p>\n Due to the situation in Ukraine, the Middle East and farther East, \u201cour potential adversaries are learning very quickly,\u201d Lea said. \u201cStormShroud\u2019s development is the U.K.\u2019s clear aspiration to demonstrate it has a capability that can seek to challenge those threats.\u201d<\/p>\n Germany\u2019s Hensoldt has been developing the\u00a0Kalaetron Attack<\/a>\u00a0radar jammer for airborne electronic attack, focused on stand-off jamming or as an escort jammer onboard the Eurofighter, and also available in a stand-in jamming configuration. The company, which will be present in Paris, flight tested the DRFM-based system in 2023.<\/p>\n A consortium led by Indra Sistemas that also includes Hensoldt, Elettronica and Saab has been working on a project called Responsive Electronic Attack for Cooperative Tasks, or\u00a0REACT<\/a>, aimed at developing a multi-jamming capability that can be integrated inside unmanned aerial combat vehicles for stand-in jamming or in pods for escort jamming.<\/p>\n The project\u2019s second phase will last through 2028 and received \u20ac40 million in European Union funding in 2023, on a total budget of \u20ac69.7 million, following a first three-year\u00a0phase<\/a>\u00a0of feasibility studies and design. REACT is part of the Airborne Electronic Attack\u00a0project<\/a>\u00a0established in 2019 within the EU\u2019s Permanent Structured Cooperation framework.<\/p>\n