Electronic warfare guide

Electronic Warfare refers to modules that tamper with the electronics of your own or your target's ship. There are four main categories, namely ECM with its countermeasure ECCM, Tracking Disruption with its countermeasure Tracking Computer, Sensor Dampening with Sensor Boosting being the counterpart and target painting, which doesn't have a countermeasure. Generally all races can use any kind of Electronic Warfare, though there are ships that give bonuses to certain types. Another category is the modules that pin down a ship as in either slowing it down or preventing it from warping.

A counter measure for Target Painting would be to have a "Skirmish Warfare link - Evasive Maneuvers" fitted to a Command Ship or a Battlecruiser with the pilot selected as booster for the gang or you could implant yourself with Halo implants to also lower your ships signature radius.

Contents 1 ECM 2 Tracking Disruption 3 Sensor Dampening 4 Target Painting 5 Pinning Other Ships Down (aka Tackling)

ECM

Favored by:

some Caldari ships

Ships with Bonuses:

Griffin (Frigate)

Blackbird (Cruiser)

Scorpion (Battleship)

Kitsune (Electronic Attack Ship)

Rook (Combat Recon Ship)

Falcon (Force Recon Ship)

Widow (Black Ops)

Modules:

Multispectral Jammer - effective against any race but weaker than the race specific versions

Magnetometric Jammer (Aqua icon) - effective against Gallente

Ladar Jammer (Red Icon) - effective against Minmatar

Radar Jammer (Gold Icon) - effective against Amarr

Gravimetric Jammer (Blue Icon) - effective against Caldari

ECM Burst - effective against any race, but high demand of capacitor

Signal Distortion Amplifier - Increases strength of all ECM modules, except ECM Bursts.

Rigs:

Particle Dispersion Augmentors - strengthen jamming, but decreased shields as a drawback

Particle Dispersion Projectors - increase optimal range of Electronic Warfare modules, but decreased shields as a drawback

Signal Disruption Amplifiers - reduce capacitor cost of all ECM and Burst modules. No drawback.

Drones:

Hornet EC-300 (light)

Vespa EC-600 (medium)

Wasp EC-900 (heavy)

Modules used as a countermeasure:

Sensors (Multi-spectrum, Magnometric, Ladar, Radar, Gravimetric)

Sensor Backup Arrays (Multi-spectrum, Magnometric, LADAR, RADAR, Gravimetric)

Projected ECCM (used on friendly ships but don't have any effect on the own ship)

Electronics Superiority Rigs

How it works:

ECM modules/drones, colloquially "jammers", disrupt the targeting abilities of the other ship for 20 seconds. This is chance based and influenced by the jamming strength of the module/drone and the sensor strength of the target ship.

Each races' ships have a particular sensor type. Each "racial" jammer module is strong against one of these types and weak against others. Multispectral jammers are of the same strength against all sensor types, weaker than racials against their best target but stronger than racials against the wrong races. Each ship also has sensor strength; typically the bigger the ship, the stronger the sensors.

The chance of one module to jam one ship on one cycle is p = ECM strength / ship sensor strength. (For the ECM module the strength against that ship's racial sensor type is used.) Hence, the probability that the jam fails is 1-p, the probability that at N jammers all fail is (1-p)^N, and so the the probability that at least one jammer succeeds is 1-(1-p)^N, assuming each jammer is of similar type. (The formula for different strengths of jammers is left as exercise.)

How the countermeasure works:

ECCM and Sensor Backup Arrays both increase the sensor strength of a ship, which lowers the chance of a jam. ECCM is more effective, but uses capacitor, as opposed to Sensor Backup Arrays.

HINT : When using ECM modules you can select the racial jammer for the targeted ship based on the color code principle.

Caldari - Blue background icon - Blue ECM module

Gallente - Green background icon - Green ECM module

Amarr - Gold/Brown background icon - Gold/Yellow ECM module

Minmatar - Red/Pink background icon - Red ECM module

Tracking Disruption

Favored by:

some Amarr ships

Ships with Bonuses:

Crucifier (Frigate)

Arbitrator (Cruiser)

Sentinel (Electronic Attack Ship)

Curse (Combat Recon Ship)

Pilgrim (Force Recon Ship)

Modules used:

Tracking Disruptors

Rigs used:

Particle Dispersion Projectors - increase optimal range of Electronic Warfare modules, but have decreased shields as a drawback.

Tracking Diagnostic Subroutines - increase tracking speed of own ship and optimal range disruption of Tracking Disruptors but has decreased shields as a drawback.

Drones used:

Acolyte TD-300 (light)

Infiltrator TD-600 (medium)

Praetor TD-900 (heavy)

Modules used as a countermeasure:

Tracking Computers

Rigs used as a countermeasure:

Tracking Diagnostic Subroutines - increase tracking speed of own ship and optimal range disruption of Tracking Disruptors, but has decreased shields as a drawback.

How it works:

Tracking disruptors reduce both the optimal and falloff range OR the tracking ability of the target's turrets depending on which script is used. With no script fitted they reduce all three, but to a lesser extent.

How the countermeasure works:

Tracking computers increase the optimal range and tracking ability of the ship's turrets.

Sensor Dampening

Favored by:

some Gallente ships

Ships with Bonuses:

Maulus (Frigate)

Celestis (Cruiser)

Keres (Electronic Attack Ship)

Lachesis (Combat Recon Ship)

Arazu (Force Recon Ship)

Modules used:

Remote Sensor Dampeners

Rigs used:

Inverted Signal Field Projectors - increase effect of Sensor Dampeners, but have decreased shields as a drawback.

Particle Dispersion Projectors - increase optimal range of Electronic Warfare modules, but have decreased shields as a drawback.

Drones used:

Hobgoblin SD-300 (light)

Hammerhead SD-600 (medium)

Ogre SD-900 (heavy)

Modules used as a countermeasure:

Sensor Boosters

Signal Amplifiers

Remote Sensor Boosters (work on a target ship but don't benefit the own ship)

Rigs used as a countermeasure:

Ionic Field Projectors - increases targeting range, but has decreased shields as a drawback.

Targeting System Subcontrollers - increases targeting speed, but has decreased shields as a drawback.

How it works:

Remote Sensor Dampeners lower the maximum targeting range and the sensor resolution of the target ship. The result is that the targeting range of the other ship is reduced and it also takes a longer time for it to get a target lock once it gets in range.

How the countermeasure works:

Targeting range and speed get enhanced with Sensor Boosters being more effective than Signal Amplifiers. The downside is that they use capacitor.

Target Painting

Favored by:

some Minmatar ships

Ships with Bonuses:

Vigil (Frigate)

Bellicose (Cruiser)

Hyena (Electronic Attack Ship)

Huginn (Combat Recon Ship)

Rapier (Force Recon Ship)

Golem (Marauder)

Modules used:

Target Painters

Rigs used:

Particle Dispersion Projectors - increase optimal range of Electronic Warfare modules. This rig has decreased shields as a drawback.

Drones used:

Warrior TP-300 (light)

Valkyrie TP-900 (medium)

Berserker TP-900 (heavy)

Modules used as a countermeasure:

none

How it works:

Increases the signature of the target ship. The result is that target is easier to hit.

Pinning Other Ships Down (aka Tackling)

Favored by:

all interceptors (warp jammers)

Huginn, Rapier (webbers)

Modules used:

Warp Disruptors - scramble targeted ship and prevent it from warping away.

Warp Scramblers - scramble targeted ship and prevent it from warping away. They are stronger than jammers and they also prevent microwarpdrive modules from operating.

Webifiers - "web" targeted ship and slow it down significantly

Drones used:

Berserker SW-900 (heavy webifier drone)

Modules used as a countermeasure:

Warp Core Stabilizers

How it works:

Warp Disruptors and Scramblers prevent the target ship from warping. It uses a point system, meaning that if you use one point of warp scramble strength and the other ship doesn't have any Warp Core Stabilizers to counter this, it will be prevented from warping away as long as it is in range of your Warp Jammer. Warp Disruptors have one point and scramblers have two points. Two warp core stabilizers are needed to counter the effect of a warp scrambler. However, the scrambler has a significantly shorter range than the Disruptor. Stasis Webifiers slow down the target ship as long as it is in range.