Qinghan Xiao
International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems (IJAE), Volume (9) : Issue (3) : 2020 48
Cognitive Electronic Warfare: Conceptual Design and
Architecture
Qinghan Xiao qinghan.xiao@drdc-rddc.gc.ca
Radar Electronic Warfare Section
Defence R&D Canada - Ottawa Research Centre
Ottawa, ON, K1A 0Z4, Canada
Abstract
Computing revolution is heralding the transition from digital to cognitive that is the third significant
era in the history of computer technology: the cognitive era. It is about the use of computers to
mimic human thought processes, such as perception, memory, learning and decision-making in
highly dynamic environments. In recent years, there is a growing research interest in the
development of cognitive capabilities in radio frequency technologies. Using cognition-based
techniques, a radar system would be able to perceive its operational environment, fine-tune and
accordingly adjust its emission parameters, such as the pulse width, pulse repetition interval, and
transmitter power, to perform its assigned task optimally. It is certain that traditional electronic
warfare (EW) methods, which rely on pre-programmed attack strategies, will not be able to
efficiently engage with such a radar threat. Therefore, the next generation of EW systems needs
to be enhanced with cognitive abilities so that they can make autonomous decisions in response
to changing situations, and cope with new, unknown radar signals. Because the system
architecture is a blueprint, this paper presents a conceptual cognitive EW architecture that carries
out both electronic support and electronic attack operations to synthesize close-to-optimal
countermeasures subject to performance goals.
Keywords: Cognitive Electronic Warfare, Intelligent System Architecture, Previously Unknown
Threat, Feedback-based Decision-making.
1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, there are more and more commentators who are talking about that we are
entering a new third era of computing — cognitive era — making cognitive capabilities available
on a large scale [1][2][3]. The two previous eras are: 1) the “tabulating era” (1900s-1940s) was
made up of the early use of mechanical systems that can perform simple tasks as tabulate
calculations; and 2) the programming era (1950s-present) is the era that began during World War
II and today’s computing professionals have been so involved. It is marked with a shift from
mechanical tabulators to electronic systems that can be reprogrammed to run different algorithms
and carry out multiple tasks. The cognitive computing (2011-future) is the third era that brings
with it a fundamental change with which cognitive systems are built to be able to think like human
beings [1][4][5].
Cognitive computing takes computing concepts to a new level to mimic the way the human brain
works [6], such as perceiving, thinking, learning, remembering and problem solving. Cognitive
computing is a combination of cognitive science and computer science although they may have
essentially differences from research objects and methods. Cognitive science refers to the
interdisciplinary scientific study dealing with the process of cognition that investigates how
information is stored, arranged and transferred in human mind. As an inter-disciplinary science, it
encompasses the traditional disciplines of philosophy, psychology, computer science, artificial
intelligence (AI), linguistics, neuroscience, and others [7]. Cognition originates from Latin [8], is a
mental process of obtaining knowledge through thought, experience and the senses. It
fundamentally controls our emotions, thoughts and behaviors. Human cognition is an adaptive
