We’re really at semantics here, but active EA is comprised of jamming, deception, active cancellation, and EMP use. Of course there’s kinetic attack via HARM as well
If a system is cancelled, I would not consider it to be jammed. Jammed is providing too much or too many signals in order to overload the system or operator. A cancellation is electronic white out. It sounds like you’ve seen cancellation in operation.
And you are most right that its a continuously changing game.
There’s also a possibility of it being meaconing. Fooling the radar into believing that it’s some place else.
An old friend of mine worked on a system that is probably outdated now, but it’s still impressive to me. 3 planes with data links to a ground command center would fly very high in a triangular formation several miles apart. If a radar signal came on, even for a split second, all 3 planes received it, and with their GPS and timing data they triangulated the source. Almost instantly, the location was uploaded to a fighter and from the fighter into a fire-and-forget missile. And that split second of radar emissions would soon become a missile magnet, even if they didn’t turn it on again.
It’s kind of hard to have a “fun” discussion of Electronic Warfare in an unclassified environment. Although I have been out for 14 years I get a little nervous about describing exactly what techniques were used against me, what effect it had on my equipment, why it was or was not successful.
The best unclassified book I ever read about the subject was called, “The Enemy is Listening” written by Aileen Clayton who was a German linguist and intercept operator during WWII. She covers a lot so subjects outside of that specific field that are very interesting and the foundation of everything else that happened in the field since.
I am still fascinated by the subject and enjoy trying to read between the lines.