World’s First 6G Electronic Warfare System: China has announced its world’s first 6G-powered electronic warfare weapon system. Created by Professor Deng Lei and team at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), this ground-based micro wave-photonic architecture system can jam and communicate simultaneously on the same high-frequency band, a historic jump beyond specialized, one-purpose jammers .
World’s First 6G Electronic Warfare System: How It Works?
At its heart is a photon-powered engine with a dual-polarization IQ modulator and an active optical fiber loop. This configuration enables it to intercept radar signals, particularly in the X-band (~12 GHz), and generate as many as 3,600 lifelike false radar targets through carefully delayed cloned signals. It keeps full-duplex communication, transmitting and receiving battlefield data at lightning speeds via optical fibers to more than 300 collaborative platforms.
With this groundbreaking convergence, jamming and communications no longer need to occupy different frequency bands or different hardware. A stunning convergence made possible by 6G.
Striking the F-35 Radar: A Direct Attack
Perhaps the most discussed implication is its direct impact on Northrop Grumman’s AN/APG‑85 radar, installed in the F‑35 stealth fighter. This AESA radar operates in the X‑band (8–12 GHz), long thought to be impenetrable by legacy jammers. This new Chinese system’s ability to launch thousands of coherent decoys poses a serious threat to the F‑35’s sensor fusion and tracking capabilities.
By saturating radar feeds with fake blips, it could further reduce situational awareness, confound threat recognition and decision-making in challenged airspace.
World’s First 6G Electronic Warfare System: Why It’s Important?
This innovation switches from brute-force jamming to surgical electromagnetic manipulation. By integrating jamming and transmission of data, it’s a beautiful, multi-function, miniaturized method that can reduce power and reliance on large hardware.
Backed by funding estimated at ¥7well first.8 million ($10 million), the system reportedly moved from lab research to pilot industrial trials, exhibiting genuine Chinese capability and ambition.
Tactical and Strategic Implications
1. For radars
Current countermeasures like frequency agility and encryption may be insufficient. Thousands of credible looking false targets might swam an operator’s display, necessitating reliance on machine learning-based filters and anomaly detection.
2. For survivability of the aircraft
If F‑35s can be tricked, decisions critical to missions depend on trusted sensor fusion. Disruption at the radar level can cascade into degraded navigation, targeting and defensive systems.
3. For tactical communications
That capacity to jam and talk securely in the same spectrum provides you a persistent tactical advantage. Intersections like these could inform new theories and chip designs, ranging from AI-based outlier detection to more efficient processing onboard.
4. World military balance
It flies in the face of decades of assumptions about Western radar dominance. It forces military planners to explore 6G-powered electronic warfare countermeasures and could accelerate adoption of novel photonics-based anti-jamming technologies.
China’s 6G-based electronic warfare system is a turning point, introducing a new paradigm where communications, deception, and sensing intersect. If fielded operationally, it could become a serious threat to contemporary western stealth and radar. Over the next years, both such jamming platforms and counter countermeasures will presumably swiftly advance, reshaping the electromagnetic battlespace as we know it.
Leave a Reply