GPI Global Policy Institute

China’s Electronic Warfare Supremacy – Strategic Implications for India and the United States

By Dr. Nishakant Ojha

NEW DELHI – November 11, 2025 – In contemporary warfare, dominance is no longer defined by the size of an army or the range of its missiles but by control over the invisible yet decisive electromagnetic spectrum. The ability to detect, disrupt, or deny information flow across this domain has become the cornerstone of modern conflict. Electronic Warfare (EW) has thus evolved from a tactical support mechanism into a strategic instrument for shaping the outcome of wars. Among global powers, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has emerged as a formidable force, integrating electronic, cyber, and space capabilities to construct a multi-domain system that directly challenges both India and the United States.

The PLA’s Strategic Transition Toward Electromagnetic Supremacy

Over the last decade, China has transformed its military doctrine through what it calls Integrated Network and Electronic Warfare, a concept that merges cyber operations, space-based intelligence, and electromagnetic control, into a single offensive continuum. This concept underpins the PLA’s System Destruction Warfare doctrine, which focuses not on the annihilating enemy forces but on crippling their ability to perceive, communicate, and respond effectively.
To realize this vision, the PLA has developed dedicated electronic warfare brigades, theatre-level spectrum management centres, and purpose-built aircraft. Advanced platforms like the J-16D electronic-attack fighter and the Y-9/GX-11 reconnaissance aircraft illustrate China’s technological ambition to command the electromagnetic environment. These assets can suppress radar systems, jam GPS and satellite links, and disrupt communication networks, effectively leaving an adversary blind and deaf even before actual kinetic hostilities begin.

Further strengthening this network is China’s constellation of electronic intelligence satellites that track and analyse global radar and signal emissions. This real-time, space-enabled capability allows the PLA to coordinate jamming and deception operations with extraordinary precision. By synchronizing electronic, cyber, and space elements, China has effectively built an integrated “electronic kill chain”, an architecture that can neutralize adversary sensors and decision systems in a matter of minutes. Equally critical is Beijing’s investment in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to power “cognitive EW.” This emerging technology enables automated systems to classify signals, identify hostile emissions, and deploy countermeasures without human intervention. Such autonomy accelerates response time and enhances survivability in complex electromagnetic environments.
In essence, China has elevated electronic warfare from a tactical subset to a strategic pillar of its overall military doctrine, turning the electromagnetic spectrum into the decisive front line of future conflicts.

The U.S. Response-From Dominance to Resilience

For decades, the United States has been the benchmark of electronic warfare excellence. Its dominance stems from a combination of advanced technology, battle-tested platforms, and a doctrine emphasizing multi-domain integration. Recognizing China’s growing proficiency, Washington has begun refining its strategy from one of pure dominance to one cantered on resilience and adaptability in contested environments.
Frontline assets such as the EA-18G Growler, equipped with the Next Generation Jammer (NGJ), and the EC-37B Compass Call represent America’s offensive and defensive edge in electromagnetic operations. These platforms can dismantle radar networks, disable communications grids, and disrupt data links across vast operational ranges. On the ground, the Terrestrial Layer System (TLS) enables U.S. Army units to detect, jam, and deceive adversary emissions, while the U.S. Space Force continues to expand satellite-based EW and counter-communication capabilities.

China’s response

However, recent Pentagon assessments reveal that China has narrowed the technological gap, particularly in deception and GPS spoofing. This realization has shifted American military priorities toward ensuring operational continuity even under electromagnetic disruption. The focus now lies in “fighting through” interference, emphasizing distributed EW architectures, AI-enabled spectrum management, and joint force exercises simulating real-world electronic combat scenarios.This doctrinal pivot from dominance to endurance signals an understanding that the next major warm especially in the Indo-Pacific, will be determined not just by firepower but by who can operate effectively when the electromagnetic spectrum itself becomes the battlefield.

India’s Position-Tactical Strengths Amid Strategic Vulnerabilities

India’s progress in electronic warfare has been steady but fragmented. While indigenous developments like the Samyukta, Himshakti, and Shakti systems, designed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), offer credible tactical capabilities, India still lacks a coherent national framework for EW integration.
Each branch of the armed forces has developed its own electronic warfare assets. The Air Force fields systems like Divya Drishti for electronic intelligence, the Navy relies on Shakti for maritime surveillance, and the Army deploys Samyukta and Sarvottam for ground-based operations. However, the absence of a Tri-Service Spectrum Command has resulted in operational silos that hinder real-time coordination. This fragmented approach limits India’s ability to mount synchronized EW and cyber operations at the theatre level.
More critically, India’s surveillance and reconnaissance infrastructure still depends on technologies developed nearly 15 years ago. Many radars, ELINT platforms, and signal interception systems along sensitive borders, particularly the Line of Actual Control (LAC) struggle to resist modern Chinese jamming and deception tactics. Although public sector undertakings and defence research entities are working on modernization, the pace remains slow, and upgrades are often constrained by bureaucratic delays and funding gaps.
This technological stagnation poses serious risks. In a high-intensity conflict scenario, outdated surveillance networks could be neutralized within minutes, leaving field commanders with limited situational awareness. Communication breakdowns, delayed decision-making, and degraded air-defence response could follow, giving adversaries a significant first-mover advantage.

Hybrid Warfare and Spectrum Denial- The New Form of Conflict

Modern warfare has evolved beyond kinetic engagements. China’s hybrid warfare model now fuses cyber operations, information manipulation, and electromagnetic dominance to create a multi-layered offensive that targets both the mind and the machine. Instead of bombs, the first strike may arrive in the form of signal jamming, GPS spoofing, or network disinformation, actions designed to erode trust in systems, confuse leadership, and disrupt command chains without a single missile being fired.
Such operations blur the boundaries between peace and war. They generate uncertainty, delay response, and manipulate perceptions, an approach perfectly suited for grey-zone confrontations where ambiguity itself becomes a weapon.

India’s response

India, though aware of this paradigm shift, has yet to institutionalize a comprehensive hybrid warfare doctrine. The Armed Forces recognize EW’s significance but lack the joint mechanisms and AI-based decision systems required to anticipate and counter large-scale spectrum denial attacks. The gap between conceptual understanding and operational readiness remains wide, a vulnerability that sophisticated adversaries are likely to exploit.

 

The table above illustrates how China’s unified and offensive doctrine, paired with state-of-the-art platforms, contrasts sharply with India’s fragmented approach and reliance on legacy technology. While the United States focuses on survivability and integration, India must first bridge foundational gaps before it can aspire to parity.

The Need for a Real Audit of India’s EW Ecosystem

A comprehensive, independent real audit of India’s electronic warfare ecosystem has become a strategic necessity. Despite commendable progress in indigenous system development, much of India’s deployed EW infrastructure remains technologically obsolete. This includes sensors, radars, and electronic reconnaissance equipment positioned along the northern and western borders many of which are built on legacy architectures ill-suited for contemporary threat environments.
Such an audit must go beyond asset accounting. It should rigorously assess interoperability, cyber resilience, and survivability under real-world contested-spectrum conditions. The evaluation must integrate field-level inputs from real world not from theory. Its ultimate goal should be to generate a time-bound modernization roadmap that aligns India’s EW posture with the realities of hybrid and cognitive warfare.

Policy Imperatives for India

To bridge this widening gap, India needs a clear, actionable roadmap based on joint doctrine, indigenous innovation, and strategic foresight. The following imperatives are critical:
1. Create an Integrated Electromagnetic Spectrum Command, to unify EW, cyber, and space capabilities under a single operational authority for joint operations.
2. Modernize Surveillance and EW Infrastructure, replace aging radars and signal systems with AI-driven, software-defined architectures capable of adapting in real time.
3. Develop Indigenous Airborne EW Platforms, invest in homegrown standoff electronic attack aircraft comparable to the U.S. Growler or the Chinese J-16D.
4. Accelerate Cognitive EW and AI Integration, empower systems to autonomously detect, analyse, and counter threats with minimal human delay.
5. Strengthen Spectrum Resilience, ensure communications, sensors, and GPS networks remain functional under jamming and spoofing.
6. Institutionalize Joint Spectrum Warfare Exercises, conduct large-scale tri-service simulations replicating real hybrid and electromagnetic warfare scenarios.

Strategic Outlook-The Approaching “War of Silence”

The conflicts of the future will not begin with explosions but with silence, sensors going dark, data streams freezing, and commanders operating in electronic blindness. The victor will be the one who maintains decision-making superiority amid that silence.
India’s security architecture stands at a crossroads-its potential is vast, but so are its vulnerabilities. The nation must transition swiftly from spectrum survival to spectrum supremacy through doctrinal reform, rapid modernization, and indigenous technological empowerment. The electromagnetic spectrum is no longer a support domain; it is the battlespace itself. Those who master it will not only win wars but define the peace that follows. The next conflict may not roar, it may whisper, suggesting that those who impose battlefield silence will command the future.

In conclusion, for China, the goal is to pre-empt and paralyze. For the United States, it is to endure and adapt. For India, it must be to transform and innovate.

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Dr. Nishakant Ojha is a Senior Advisor of the Global Policy Institute in Washington D.C and the Director of the Global Policy Institute, India. He is a globally acclaimed expert in counterterrorism and strategy, who has influenced national security policies, providing strategic defense guidance to multiple allied nations.

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