US senators recently introduced the Electronic Warfare Enhancement Act to refocus US EW efforts and this renewed emphasis will also be reflected in developing and maintaining conventional Electronic Warfare Support (EWS) capabilities to enable operations in a congested and contested spectrum environment. This will drive spending and also underpin demand for new systems as well as upgrading existing capabilities. The Strategy Analytics Advanced Defense Systems (ADS) service series of Electronic Warfare Support (EWS) forecasts, outline global defense expenditure trends segmented on a regional basis before breaking out the expected spend on EWS incorporating systems, hardware, support and related services across the land, air and naval domains.

In the area of RF-based EWS, this will be underpinned by an emphasis on direct and fast digital synthesis of the RF signals across the full breadth of the frequency spectrum driving demand for wideband solid state RF component technologies coupled with higher performing wider bandwidth digital receivers. The associated market for semiconductor components will approach $232 million in 2024.

RF-based Electronic Warfare Support (EWS) systems such as RWRs (Radar Warning Receivers), DF/COMINT (Direction Finding and Communications Intelligence) and ESM/ELINT (Electronic Support Measures and Electronic Signals Intelligence) will dominate the market for EWS system spending, accounting for 73% of the total market in 2024.

- Spending on EWS systems installed on airborne platforms will account for 36% through 2024. Developing and maintaining land-based EWS capabilities will represent the second largest end market.

- EWS systems include both RF (radio frequency) -based  and EO-IR (electro-optical and infra-red) and laser-based TWRs (Threat Warning Receivers) will account for the third largest market, followed by DF/COMINT systems with spending on ESM/ELINT systems accounting for the largest market. Collectively, these sectors will account for account for 93% of total spending on EWS through 2024.                                                                                              .

- The total number of EWS system shipments is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 3.6% through 2024 to reach 9,319 units.

Strategy Analytics Global Electronic Warfare Support (EWS) Market and Technology Forecast: 2014 - 2024 outlines analysis looking at the total EWS sector providing segmentation detail related to form factors, platforms, frequency, power and associated enabling technology trends and component demand.