Electronic warfare

Jamming, deceiving and protecting radar and radio signals.

China leads electronic warfare research, with 81.0% of the 10% most cited papers published 2021–2025; Canada is second with 2.1%.

Added 14 October 2026. Its top papers were checked for relevance by AI, but its keywords and topic list have not yet been reviewed by hand.

FirstChina81.0%

SecondCanada2.1%

38.4×lead, by share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025

Highlight a country

Standings

1CNChina81.0%2–3CACanada2.1%2–3USUnited States1.4%4–19KRSouth Korea1.0%4–19PTPortugal0.8%4–19PKPakistan0.8%4–19ZASouth Africa0.8%4–19FRFrance0.8%4–19NONorway0.8%4–19SGSingapore0.8%

Share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025; 117 papers. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Year by year

About 23 papers a year. Single-year moves are noise.

China

Everyone else, on a larger scale

Share of the 10% most cited papers published in each year. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Inside the field

Always the top 10%Pilot

Each paper sorted into one sub-area by an AI model reading its title and abstract, then credited as usual. On 200 hand-labelled papers it chose the same sub-area, or a defensible second, 92% of the time.

Sub-area	Papers	First	Second	Third
Anti-jamming radar signal processing (ECCM)	22	CNChina84.2%	ITItaly1.9%	HKHong Kong0.9%
Jamming and deception techniques (incl. metasurfaces, SAR jamming)	20	CNChina83.3%	PTPortugal5.0%	CACanada2.5%
Radar jamming recognition	19	CNChina83.0%	KRSouth Korea5.3%	PKPakistan5.3%
Cognitive EW and radar-jammer games (reinforcement learning)	19	CNChina90.1%	USUnited States5.4%	ITItaly1.1%
Anti-jamming wireless and satellite communications	19	CNChina71.3%	CACanada6.4%	INIndia4.1%
Signal interception, deinterleaving and microwave photonics	3	CNChina55.6%	FRFrance33.3%	AUAustralia7.4%

Share of each sub-area's papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Earlier and recent

Small sample: 55 papers in one period.

The same top 10%, split into 2021–2023 and 2024–2025.

FallingRising2021–20232024–2025Change

CNChina 83.9%78.5%−5.4 pts

CACanada 2.7%1.6%−1.2 pts

USUnited States 2.4%0.6%−1.8 pts

KRSouth Korea 1.8%0.2%−1.6 pts

PTPortugal 0.0%1.6%+1.6 pts

PKPakistan 0.0%1.6%+1.6 pts

ZASouth Africa 0.0%1.6%+1.6 pts

FRFrance 0.0%1.6%+1.6 pts

Greyed rows rest on fewer than five papers of credit in one period.

Share of the 10% most cited papers: 55 papers in 2021–2023, 62 in 2024–2025. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

2026 so far: a different count

Not the most cited papers: every 2026 paper matched so far (269), and a paper counts in full for each country on it. This year's papers are too new to rank by citations, so these shares cannot be compared with the ones above.

CNChina82.2%of 2026 papers have an author here
TRTurkey3.3%of 2026 papers have an author here
INIndia1.9%of 2026 papers have an author here
ITItaly1.9%of 2026 papers have an author here
CACanada1.5%of 2026 papers have an author here

Who cites the top papers

How much more often a country's top papers are cited from home than its size predicts. Expected is the country's share of all papers in the field; the bar is the excess, in percentage points. Home citers include authors citing their own earlier work.

HomeExpectedExcess

CNChina 78.5%80.0%−1.5

Based on up to 100 of each country's most cited single-country papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Behind the share

Institutions with the most credit

1CNXidian University14.6%
2CNNational University of Defense Technology9.5%
3CNUniversity of Electronic Science and Technology of China9.4%
4CNSun Yat-sen University5.1%
5CNPLA Army Engineering University4.1%
6CNBeijing Institute of Technology3.8%
7CNHefei University of Technology3.0%
8CNNanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics2.7%
9CNAir Force Engineering University2.4%
10CNHarbin Institute of Technology2.1%

Share of the top 10%. Institutions across all 45 technologies

Who does the work

Sector	All	CN	CA	US
Universities	91.9%	94.8%	100.0%	100.0%
Research facilities	3.4%	1.5%	0%	0%
Government labs	2.8%	2.8%	0%	0%
Companies	1.7%	0.8%	0%	0%

Share of credit by type of institution, overall and for the three leading countries.

Across borders

19.7% of the top 10% have authors in more than one country.

CNUSChina with United States5
CNSGChina with Singapore4
CNITChina with Italy4
CNHKChina with Hong Kong3
AUCNAustralia with China3

Most frequent pairings, by number of shared papers.

The papers behind the numbers

The five most cited papers this definition catches. If one looks out of place, the definition needs work.

Satellite-based communications security: A survey of threats, solutions, and research challenges
Computer Networks, 2022AENLQA
176citations
Deep-Learning for Radar: A Survey
IEEE Access, 2021CN
162citations
Radar Deception Jamming Recognition Based on Weighted Ensemble CNN With Transfer Learning
IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2021CN
154citations
Radar Target Complex High-Resolution Range Profile Modulation by External Time Coding Metasurface
IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 2024CN
113citations
Adaptation of Frequency Hopping Interval for Radar Anti-Jamming Based on Reinforcement Learning
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 2022CNUS
103citations

How this technology is defined

A paper counts if its title or abstract matches the search below. Articles in core journals and proceedings only; retracted papers are excluded.

"electronic warfare" OR "radar jamming" OR "deceptive jamming" OR "anti-jamming" OR "jamming suppression" OR "electronic countermeasure"

and its main topic in OpenAlex is one of: Radar Systems and Signal Processing; Advanced SAR Imaging Techniques; Cognitive Radio Networks and Spectrum Sensing; Wireless Signal Modulation Classification; Advanced Photonic Communication Systems; GNSS positioning and interference; Wireless Communication Security Techniques; Direction-of-Arrival Estimation Techniques; Military Technology and Strategies; Military Defense Systems Analysis; Advanced Antenna and Metasurface Technologies; Satellite Communication Systems. The topic check removes papers that only mention the technology.

Papers matched, 2021–2025: 1,153
In the top 10%: 117
In the top 1%: 14
Countries with credit: 23
Credit with no known country: 4.9%

Every one of the 153 most cited papers was checked for relevance; 17 were left out as not about electronic warfare

The most cited of those left out:

Artificial intelligence for satellite communication: A review191 citations
Pangolin‐Inspired Stretchable, Microwave‐Invisible Metascale91 citations
Why Drones Have Not Revolutionized War: The Enduring Hider-Finder Competition in Air Warfare85 citations
Photonic Millimeter-Wave Joint Radar Communication System Using Spectrum-Spreading Phase-Coding74 citations
Multifunctional Metamaterial with Reconfigurable Electromagnetic Scattering Properties for Advanced Stealth and Adaptive Applications59 citations
Application of deep generative networks for SAR/ISAR: a review54 citations
Broadband Instantaneous Multi-Frequency Measurement Based on a Fourier Domain Mode-Locked Laser51 citations
Unmanned ground weapon target assignment based on deep Q-learning network with an improved multi-objective artificial bee colony algorithm49 citations
Hybrid-integrated wideband tunable optoelectronic oscillator48 citations
Co‐Prime Modulation for Space‐Time‐Coding Digital Metasurfaces with Ultralow‐Scattering Characteristics42 citations
Meta-Learning Guided Label Noise Distillation for Robust Signal Modulation Classification28 citations
Considerations, Advances, and Challenges Associated with the Use of Specific Emitter Identification in the Security of Internet of Things Deployments: A Survey25 citations

Definition version 0.5, pilot. It is a plain text file: copy it, change it, rerun it.

Read the method