2023 was a year where electronic warfare moved from incremental upgrades to demonstrable new capabilities that change how we think about countering massed unmanned systems and managing contested spectrum. The items below are the technologies and programs I think had the most practical impact for operators and system designers. Each entry focuses on what changed technically, how it affects tactics, and what practitioners should watch for next.

High Power Microwave prototypes moving into Army test beds

High power microwave systems stepped out of lab demonstrations and into government prototype deliveries in 2023. Epirus completed government acceptance testing and delivered an IFPC-HPM prototype to the U.S. Army as part of the Indirect Fire Protection Capability effort. That delivery is important because it pairs HPM effects with a modern layered short range air defense architecture rather than treating HPM as a stand alone novelty. From a tactics perspective HPM is useful for contested fixed and semi fixed-site defense against large numbers of small drones where kinetic solutions are expensive or logistically difficult to scale. For system engineers the practical takeaways are safety integration, spectrum deconfliction, and ensuring command and control meshes with existing FAAD C2 stacks.

AI enabled spectrum sensing and tactical emission control

The U.S. Army and research partners fielded Advanced Dynamic Spectrum Reconnaissance, an AI enabled capability that was exercised with units in Europe. ADSR shows how machine learning can be applied to sense, classify, and then dynamically avoid or reduce emissions in hostile electromagnetic environments. On the tactical side ADSR is not a silver bullet. It is a force multiplier for communications resilience and spectrum denial avoidance when combined with training and doctrine that accept autonomous aids to spectrum management. For RF engineers the implementation lesson is clear. Low latency data pipelines, tight integration between radios and the AI engine, and robust validation of behavior under degraded and adversarial inputs matter more than ever.

DARPA programs and the push toward adaptive EW

DARPA continued to fund and mature machine learning for EW through programs such as BLADE and RFMLS. These programs move adaptive jamming and RF fingerprinting from research prototypes toward field relevant demonstrations. The technical emphasis is on automated signal discrimination, on the fly waveform synthesis, and online assessment of effect. For EW operators this means a future where countermeasures can be generated in mission time against previously unknown adaptive comms and radar waveforms. The engineering risk to manage today is ensuring learning systems have safe constraints and measurable failure modes before they are allowed to generate effects in live environments.

Low cost kinetic and autonomous counter UAS platforms

2023 saw a continued focus on affordable, mission tailored counter UAS effectors. Electro Optic Systems launched its Slinger counter UAS capability in May 2023 and demonstrated export and live fire activity later in the year. Slinger represents the trend toward weapon packages designed to keep cost per engagement low and to be integrated with sensor and C2 suites built from lessons learned in ongoing conflicts. Similarly, autonomous interceptor drones that hunt and collide with hostile small UAVs advanced in capability and public visibility. The practical implication for defenders is that we now have a more diverse toolbox for defeating small UAS: non kinetic jamming and HPM for mass effects, plus lower cost kinetic or autonomous interceptors for precision engagements. Integrators must design C2 rules to avoid fratricide and enable rapid target attribution when layered effectors are used together.

Portable and modular C-UAS concepts

A notable trend in 2023 was modularity. Systems were designed to be deployed on trucks, small vehicles, pontoons, or as man portable packages and to plug into wider sensor networks. That modularity lets units tailor countermeasures to mission sets rather than buying single purpose boxes. The MARSS Interceptor short range variant highlights this by packaging an autonomous interceptor into configurations intended to be handheld, vehicle mounted, or integrated into shipboard suites. Modularity accelerates fielding but raises integration work for waveform management, GPS denial contingencies, and logistics for consumable payloads.

Practical lessons for hobbyists, engineers, and small teams

1) Respect legal and safety boundaries. Many of the technologies discussed have real world hazards and are regulated. High power RF or unlicensed jamming, intentional interference with GPS, or unauthorized use of spectrum can be illegal and dangerous. Always work within regulations and approved test ranges.

2) Focus on open architectures and reproducible testing. Systems that expose well defined APIs for waveform control, telemetry, and effect reporting are easier to integrate into layered defenses. For researchers and small engineering teams this reduces time to test and helps build reproducible T&E cases.

3) Emphasize validation under adversarial conditions. AI enabled EW capabilities can appear to work in benign testbeds and then degrade or behave unpredictably under adversarially crafted waveforms. Invest in adversarial test datasets and red team exercises that stress the learning loop.

4) Consider the cost per effect. Modern conflicts show that cost asymmetry matters. If a hostile small UAS costs a few thousand dollars then solutions that scale cost per engagement into the tens of thousands will be unsustainable. That is why 2023 had a strong push for low cost kinetic options and scalable HPM approaches.

What to watch in 2024 and beyond

Expect more field trials that combine these advances together. HPM delivered as a platoon level or site level capability will be tested alongside kinetic interceptors and AI spectrum management tools. Look for efforts to standardize how effectors share emitter data and battle damage assessment. From an engineering standpoint keep an eye on toolchains for safe ML in RF, synthetic signal generation for robust model training, and spectrum management frameworks that avoid harmful civilian interference. DARPA and service labs will continue to push adaptive EW, but production systems will be gated by strong requirements for safety, testability, and interoperability.

Bottom line

2023 moved several EW concepts from research toward operations. HPM reached prototype deliveries and acceptance testing. AI moved into deployed tactical aids for spectrum resilience. Low cost kinetic and autonomous interceptors further diversified the C-UAS toolbox. Taken together these shifts tighten the coupling between spectrum sensing, autonomous decision aids, and layered effectors. For practitioners the year reinforced a simple rule. Effective EW is not a single technology. It is a systems problem that demands integration, testing under realistic threat conditions, and careful rules of engagement for autonomous or semi autonomous effects.