Early next year, information warfare will start to become a tactical, airborne, combat weapon when the first U.S. Navy EA-6B Prowler squadron deploys to the aerial battlefields over Iraq and Afghanistan. Its aircraft will carry an improved electronic attack payload that includes communications countermea-sures jamming and a more precise electronic identification system. This will be the first shot in a new phase of the war against foes—including stateless groups that move across national boundaries with impunity—who rely on commercial wireless communications to command their teams and launch attacks on U.S. troops. If this Northrop Grumman-developed electronic attack capability works as warfighters and intelligence officials expect, by the time the system is fully developed, they will have turned those enemy wireless communications into a weapon against the insurgents who use them.
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