30 novembre 2018 | International, C4ISR

What will forces need in complex EW environment?

By:

Sophisticated adversaries have been leveraging the electromagnetic spectrum to create significant dilemmas for U.S. and allied forces, say officials, and transformative efforts are needed to deal with an increasing complicated threat.

“China is outspending us probably 10 to 1 on trying to figure out how to use and manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum. Russia showed us what they're going to do with it in their incursion into Ukraine ... Electromagnetic warfare, electronic warfare at the maneuver level,” Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the annual Association of Old Crows symposium held Nov. 28 in Washington, D.C.

“We haven't designed ourselves to fight that fight. They have demonstrated that they are not only willing, but they're [also] capable of deploying and employing electronic countermeasures at the ground and maneuver level. It is a reality that we are going to have to adjust to.”

The capabilities forces need

For the Army, it's not going to be one thing, Col. Mark Dotson, the capabilities manager for electronic warfare at the Cyber Center of Excellence, said at the symposium Nov. 27. There have to be layered capabilities and effects, each increasing range and sensing capability.

“We're still sorting through that,” Dotson said, noting the need to develop from the current tactical focus all the way to the strategic level.

“We're trying to expand our scope and get into what are those other things we need. Do we need artillery delivered capability? Do we need loitering munitions? Is it going to manned or is it an unmanned aircraft?”

In addition, Dotson said, the Army needs systems integrating EW, cyber and signals intelligence, and the service has started generating requirements working with the Intelligence Center of Excellence and the Cyber Center of Excellence.

“I think SIGINT and EW go hand in hand, so us not sharing going forward and working like a team like we do now makes no sense,” Col. Jennifer McAfee, Dotson's counterpart for Terrestrial and Identity at the Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, told C4ISRNET in a November interview.

McAfee added that the team is also joining up with the other centers of excellence to ensure that when they are pursuing requirements for airborne or ground systems, the Intelligence and Cyber centers are plugged in to leverage EW expertise and not create duplicative efforts.

Geolocating solutions

Others across the joint force have expressed the desire for more decoys, physical or non-physical, to confuse or confound enemy systems.

“It's network electronic warfare from air, sea and land; it's smart warfare combined with advanced decoys, whether they're physical decoys or cyber decoys out there; drones, swarms and jamming drones,” Col. John Edwards, commander of the 28th Bomb Wing, said at the symposium.

“Things that go out there to where an air defense operator cannot distinguish between what is cyber and what is real out there.”

Such aerial systems can be used to either overwhelm or distract air defenses, allowing strike aircraft to penetrate, or take the point jamming the air defenses and thus assuming all the risk leaving the more expensive and manned systems in the rear.

On the ground side, officials have also discussed the need for more investments in decoys.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, commander of Army Cyber Command, told reporters in August that big investments needed to be made in this area. He envisioned forces being able to drop a decoy emitting strong signals off a truck at a fork in the road, thus drawing enemy attention to it.

“Now we're presenting multiple dilemmas to the adversary,” he said.

One of the difficulties of modern warfare is all jammers and sensors emit some kind of a signal in the electromagnetic spectrum, meaning they can be geolocated and targeted. This means if an enemy wants to use it, they have to take into account a risk calculus in revealing their position.

“Jammers are emitters, emitters are targets. I think that's something we really ought to be thinking about,” Selva said. “If you're going to operate in an electronically dense environment ... the tools actually reveal their position."

Similarly, decoys can be used to throw adversaries off the trail of friendly forces or distract from other items forces might want to protect.

”If I have something like a counterfire radar, that's really important to me. Maybe what I want to do, again, is push an alternate threat to the adversary," Fogarty said.

In these complex environments, Selva said forces need to be able to identify, localize and characterize the jammer. If that's possible, then forces can decide what to do with it. If the answer is they want to kill it, they have to have a tool to kill it.

“If you can't do all three of those things, the jamming is very effective,” he said.

https://www.c4isrnet.com/electronic-warfare/2018/11/29/what-will-forces-need-in-complex-ew-environment

Sur le même sujet

  • F-35 simulators can now team up with other fighter sims for virtual combat

    9 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial

    F-35 simulators can now team up with other fighter sims for virtual combat

    By: Valerie Insinna WASHINGTON — U.S. Air Force F-35 pilots at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, will now be able to step into a simulator and train alongside virtual F-16s, F-15s and other aircraft, a Lockheed Martin executive said Wednesday. Air Combat Command formally accepted Lockheed's Distributed Mission Training system on June 22 after a final test on June 18. During that test, four F-35 simulators at Nellis carried out a virtual mission with pilots in F-22, F-16 and E-3 AWACs simulators at other bases, said Chauncey McIntosh, Lockheed's vice president for F-35 training and logistics. “We did originally intend to deliver this in the April time frame, but Nellis Air Force Base did shut down some operations due to the COVID crisis,” he told reporters in a July 1 briefing. “We worked very hard with both the [F-35 Joint Program Office] and the United States Air Force to ensure as soon as the facilities were re-stood up and open, that we were there to deliver this capability.” Although F-35 pilots in a simulator could previously train with up to three other F-35 sims at the same site, the DTS system allows for those pilots to fly digitally with a large number of varying types of aircraft, as long as the simulators can operate on the same network. Lockheed previously connected F-35 simulators to other aircraft sims in its test lab, but the June 18 test was the first time F-35 simulators linked to a mass of other simulators for a virtual mission in a highly contested environment, Lockheed said in a news release. F-15s will also be able to connect into the DMT system. The next step, McIntosh said, will be installing the DMT capability at Naval Air Station Lemoore this fall and to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in spring 2021. Both bases are in California. However, some limitations will still exist, even as new DMT locations are spun up. The capability is “very scalable to other platforms,” McIntosh said, but currently only F-35, F-22, F-16, F-15 and E-3 simulators are supported by DMT. McIntosh also previously told Defense News that the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps as well as the United Kingdom, which also plans to acquire the DMT system, won't be able to train together because they use different networks. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/07/01/f-35-simulators-can-now-team-up-with-other-fighter-sims-for-virtual-combat

  • Royal Netherlands Navy orders 8 Thales radars

    17 juillet 2020 | International, C4ISR

    Royal Netherlands Navy orders 8 Thales radars

    July 16, 2020 - A major reason for selecting the NS100, next to its unparalleled performance, is fleet-wise logistic advantages. The Royal Netherlands Navy already operates the latest generation of Thales 4D AESA radars on the majority of its vessels and, given the radar's flexible architecture, it is easy to offer through–life introduction of new capabilities thereby future-proofing the radar. The NS100 on the Royal Netherlands Navy's other LPD, HNLMS Rotterdam, will be updated, so that the radars on both LPDs will be identical. The same contract specifies the delivery of Scout Mk3 surveillance radars to be installed on HNLMS Johan de Witt and on the Combat Support Ship that is presently being built for the RNLN. The CSS will also receive a Thales IFF system. Five more Scout Mk3 radars will be supplied for the M-class frigates operated by the RNLN and the Belgian Naval Component and for spares and training purposes. This contract raises the number of Scout Mk3 radars under contract to 15. Geert van der Molen, Vice President Naval at Thales: “This contract demonstrates how easy it is to update a Thales 4D AESA radar system in operation in order to align it with the same specifications as a new radar. The update involves only the exchange of one component and the installation of updated software, and can be carried out at the Naval base in Den Helder.“ About NS100 Selected for its unmatched performance and proven 4DAESA technology, the Thales NS100 dual-axis multi-beam sensor enables simultaneous detection of a high variety of targets in a single operational mode, providing unrivalled air and surface surveillance. With the additional forward and backward scanning technology, situational awareness is enhanced significantly resulting in fast track initiation and high quality weapon support. www.thalesgroup.com/ns100 View source version on Thales Group: https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/netherlands/press_release/royal-netherlands-navy-orders-8-thales-radars

  • Early Ford carrier maintenance costs lower than planned, Navy says

    28 novembre 2023 | International, Terrestre

    Early Ford carrier maintenance costs lower than planned, Navy says

    Early Ford-class maintenance costs are lower than expected, meaning the aircraft carriers could save more than predicted compared to the Nimitz class.

Toutes les nouvelles