The operational value of EW in Contemporary Warfare – a Scandinavian view

Electronic Warfare capability has proven its value on the battlefields of Ukraine on a scale hitherto never seen. This applies to air, naval and land warfare, as well as to operations in the space, cyber and information domains. Information superiority has proven its worth once again, even on a tactical level using distributed EW. One contributing factor is the rapid technology development cycle which has enabled both sides to use uncrewed or even autonomous vehicles with assorted EW payloads, for example repeaters for increased range for remote sensing and communications as well as jammers. Against this background it is relevant to raise the question how the current rapid development will manifest itself in future warfare and what the limiting and enabling factors will be when aiming to beat the opponent in achieving the best inventive EW solutions. This paper aims to explore a consolidated, open source based view on lessons learned from Ukraine concerning Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations and their implications on tactics and operations in contemporary warfare. From this standpoint, the purpose of this paper is to describe challenges and opportunities in future warfare, based on observations in Ukraine and applied to an Arctic context. The method applied is a survey of the field, with the addition of a military contextual analysis and prognosis. The basis is a thematic overview using open source information sources, primarily originating from the Swedish Armed Forces, The Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) and the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV). Thereby this paper largely rests on information from three independent Swedish defence agencies. From observing the ongoing war in Ukraine this paper concludes that the current operational environment is under rapid and constant change, and the experiences made are vital to understanding the dynamic nature of contemporary and future warfare. The question is which factors will be the game changers, and therefore the most valuable lessons, if applied to combat operations in the Arctic?