Electronic Intelligence

General description

Bear in mind; this is by no means an accurate or complete description.

ELINT is the interception and analysis of non-communication signals, ie. signals from radar and navigation systems.

ELINT is used for:

• Analysis of radar and weapon systems capabilities
• Measuring parameters for Threat library production
• Associating radar systems with platforms, organisations and geographical locations (Operational ELINT).
• Electronic countermeasures design

Read the NSA overview linked to below for an excellent introduction.

The Intelligence cycle

The ELINT Alchemist is one of the tools used to measure the paremeters of a radar signal.

The parameters goes into a database, emitter library, with the characteristics for all known signals.

Operational analysis seeks to associate a radar system with platform, weapon systems, organisation and geographical position. The results are called Electronic Order of Battle (EOB).

The data is used by the armed forces which then gives feedback to the signals intelligence agencies.

ELINT is just one of the pieces of the pussle. The analysis often uses COMINT as well as other sources to build a better picture.

Links

Some presentations I have found that can give you a more detailed understanding of radar and ELINT analysis.

ELECTRONIC INTELLIGENCE (ELINT) AT NSA (PDF)

A short historical overview of ELINT at the NSA. Good pictures of equpiment and collection platforms.

Radar Basics

Radar tutorial at radartutorial.eu. Good explanations and illustrations of basic radar knowledge.

Wikipedia: Radar

A good strating point for studies of radar.

Wikipedia: Radar signal characteristics

Good description of basic radar signal characteristics.

Introduction to ELINT Analyses

This presentation contains a general overview of ELINT, techniques and equipment as well as detailed description of analysis.

Dr. Wiley - PRI Analysis and Deinterleaving

This presentation concerns PRI analysis and is more technical. It contains radar design considerations and explanation of real-world measurements. There are examples of equipment and plots.

Analysis for Radar and Electronic Warfare

This presentation contains a short general overview of ELINT. Then there are lots of slides explaining the analog and intra-pulse analysis of Radar signals. Then comes a section on simulation of Radar singnals. The presentation does not directly address PRI analysis but has great pictures of the instruments and systems that are used.

Electronic Warfare for the Republic of Singapore Air Force

There's quite a bit on general Electronic Warfare. Then comes a pretty good bit about Radar and it concludes with an introduction to jamming.