Airborne electronic warfare (EW) systems are becoming an increasingly important part of the electronic systems in fighter aircraft. Moreover, the functionality of many airborne EW designs are no longer just limited to being a self-protection system. One of the secondary—but growing in importance—features of this technology is to be able to record all the signals and electronic emissions that the aircraft is either subjected to or in range of during its mission.
Russia’s designers refer to the recording function of an EW system, or what they call “REB” (a Russian acronym meaning Radio-Electronic Combat), as radarnaya razvedka, or “radar signals intelligence.” Each time an aircraft is able to intercept and record a new adversary radar emission, EW jamming signal, or other electronic transmission that data can then be downloaded and becomes part of the database or “threat library” that is constantly being updated and then uploaded into other databases across the fleet of combat aircraft operating with EW suites on board.
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