Microwave Link Interception

There are two basic types of ESM – Electronic Support Measures

• ELectronic INTelligence (ELINT)
  ELectronic INTelligence is primarily dedicated to the interception and analysis of radar emissions from surveillance, fire-control, or missile guidance radars and is often linked to an ECM system to provide protection from these.

• COMmunications INTelligence (COMINT)
  COMmunications INTelligence is intended for the interception of communications, whether by voice or datalink.

Both ELINT and COMINT systems are heavily dependent on digital computers to provide all the analysis functions. The software program upon which these functions are based is keyed in before any operational mission and will carry out the necessary analysis on multiple signals. The library of the average processor will contain the parameters of 2,000 or more radar systems and, in many cases, can be reprogrammed by the operator to store unidentified signals for later processing and analysis. The processing involved consists of three stages in series:

• sorting of the radar pulses as they come in
• segregation of the pulse trains
• identification of the emitters