Digital RF Memories (DRFMs) Critical for Electromagnetic Maneuver Warfare

The DRFM is a system capable of capturing, storing and re-radiating an intercepted RF signal coherently back to an emitter. During this 1-hour webinar, we examine the critical role the DRFM architecture has in today’s battle for the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum and the advanced technologies that can be incorporated for controlling this “one continuous environment.” We first look at the architecture and the technical considerations of its operation. The concept of electromagnetic maneuver warfare and the difficult terrain that must be controlled is also examined as a feedback control loop. Undersampling, analysis/synthesis channelizer, symmetrical number system-DFT receiver architectures are discussed. Photonic and superconductivity EW receiver concepts being used in electronic warfare are described. We demonstrate how the DRFM configured as a small, mobile system can be networked and distributed to play a game-changing role in cyberspace by leveraging both offensive and defensive effects in the sea, air and land domains. In addition to providing traditional electronic warfare capabilities, we show how distributed DRFMs can also enable advanced electronic attack deception concepts creating multiple, structured false targets against high range-resolution profiling radars such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and inverse-SAR. Modern time-frequency & bi-frequency electronic support (ES) detection methods will be reviewed. Automatic algorithms for DRFM-ES detecting and classifying RF threats will be covered. The rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence will be emphasized. Feature vector recognition using recurrent, convolutional & deep neural networks will be discussed. Recent counter-DRFM techniques are also reviewed.