ARTICLE
8 September 2026

Discussion on Challenges and Development of Electronic Warfare under Distributed Operations

Bing Luo1* Tianwei Zhou1 Yuanming Zhou1 Guofeng Shao1
Show Less
1 No.36 Research Institute Electronics Technology Group Corporation, Jiaxing, Zhejiang 314033, China
JERA 2026 , 10(8), 161–168; https://doi.org/10.26689/JERA.v10i8.15264
© 2026 by the Author. Licensee: Bio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty Ltd, Australia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Against the backdrop of intensifying global strategic competition, distributed operations have evolved into a dominant new warfare paradigm. Based on the latest operational concepts proposed by the U.S. military, this paper elaborates on the origin, evolution trajectory and operational characteristics of distributed maritime and air operations, and analyzes the technical development paths and implementation approaches for future distributed combat systems. Furthermore, it investigates the operational efficacy and inherent dilemmas of electronic warfare (EW) when countering distributed operations, and proposes a roadmap for key EW technological advancements, providing references for the future development of electronic warfare.

Keywords
Distributed operations
Electronic warfare (EW)
Anti-access/area denial (A2/AD)
References

[1]       U.S. Department of Defense, 2016, Remarks by Deputy Secretary Work on Third Offset Strategy. U.S. Department of Defense: 5–8.

[2]       Zhou X, Xu Q, He Z, 2020, Preliminary Research on Future Maritime and Air Distributed Combat Concepts and Force Employment. 2020(15): 856–860.

[3]       Clark B, Cropsey S, Walton T, 2020, Sustaining the Undersea Advantage: Disrupting Anti-Submarine Warfare Using Autonomous Systems. Hudson Institute.

[4]       Qin R, 2022, Research on Future Naval Distributed Combat Equipment Development. Journal of Naval Electronic Engineering, 42(07): 14–19.

[5]       Yuan C, Mu Z, 2020, Analysis of U.S. Distributed Air Combat Concepts. Aeronautical Weapons, 2020(27): 11–16.

[6]       Tang F, 2023, Analysis of U.S. Air Force Distributed Combat Progress Based on SoSITE Program. Avionics Technology, 54(04): 9–15.

[7]       DARPA, 2023, DARPA Budget, https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/budget

[8]       Li C, Sun Y, Fan Z, et al., 2023, Development Status and Trend of Unmanned Combat Platforms. Journal of China Academy of Electronics and Information Technology, 18(03): 274–279.

[9]       Liu G, Zhao T, Mao Y, 2025, Enlightenment from U.S. Communication Network Development for Distributed Air Combat. Telecommunication Engineering, 65(12): 1957–1964.

[10]     Yang K, Wang C, Wang B, 2025, Distributed Operations: Concepts, Development and Future Trends. China Military to Civilian Conversion, 2025(10): 23–24.

Share
Back to top