As countries invest in and advance their technologies, the defense industry can help the U.S. military modernize Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations by leveraging cloud native architectures to detect and defeat highly sophisticated threats, sight unseen.
We’ve all seen the grim images of tanks rolling through muddy fields and buildings reduced to rubble by missile strikes. But some of the most crucial battles taking place in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are invisible to the naked eye. In recent months the Russian military has stepped up its use of the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS), executing advanced Electronic Warfare (EIW) tactics to disrupt, deny and/or degrade Ukrainian drones and other systems. Russia has demonstrated an ability to intercept and decrypt tactical communications in real time – capabilities that Ukrainian military leaders say are slowing its counteroffensive.
As Russia’s recent successes illustrate, the EMS is more important to warfighting advantage than ever before. It’s also a more contested environment, as countries including Russia and China are advancing technologies at a rate beyond the ability to keep EW systems relevant to the mission. They’re leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and software-defined capabilities that challenge the ability to detect, identify and counter Radio Frequency (RF) threats.
U.S. Air Force (USAF) EW practitioners are, in a sense, operating with one eye blindfolded. They’re relying on outdated, slow processes and systems that may fail to take advantage of all available, real-time information sources across the electromagnetic operating environment. Without an integrated architecture that that connects all echelons – from distributed jammers to edge nodes to U.S.-based processing centers – they’re not able to effectively analyze, reprogram, and command and control (C2) disaggregated EMSO assets at the speed of need.
Make no mistake: If the U.S. loses the fight over control of the EMS, they lose the fight in all other domains. To ensure dominance in future conflicts, the Department of Defense (DoD) must significantly accelerate investments in building out Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations (EMSO) capabilities. By modernizing EMSO data architecture and taking full advantage of widely employed commercial technologies today to give our warfighters a critical edge to outsmart and outmaneuver adversaries on the airwaves tomorrow.
Delivering mission data at campaign speed
Fortunately, U.S. military leaders understand the urgency of this imperative. The DoD is moving to invest in revolutionary, leap-ahead technologies as part of its 2020 Electromagnetic Spectrum Superiority Strategy. Meanwhile the USAF has made data the centerpiece of its innovation agenda, with plans to leverage AI, Machine Learning (ML), and robust, cloud-to-edge networks to equip warfighters with data at the speed of need. The goal is to dramatically shorten the time it takes to deliver mission-critical data to the warfighter as part of an improved Electronic Warfare Integrated Reprogramming (EWIR) process and to build an architecture that enables real-time Electromagnetic Battle Management (EMBM) of distributed offensive and defensive EMS effects in support of U.S. Air Force long-range kill chains.
Distributed yet connected: An EMSO architecture for the modern era
Incremental improvements won’t get the DoD and USAF where they need to go. A major shift is needed to move from a platform-centric EW approach to a data-centric, enterprise-wide construct comprised of smaller, smarter and connected EW systems that are decentralized across the battlespace.
The good news? Much of the underlying technologies needed for this new approach are already used in the commercial world. Today’s warfighter is familiar with distributed smart sensors, on-board analytics, integrated communications, AI, machine learning (ML), specialized execution applications, cloud computing, and other technologies at the heart of our mobile society. To achieve future EMS dominance, these same technologies and concepts must apply to EMSO and EWIR. Here’s how:
The financial and operational advantages of this distributed, software-centric approach abound – including lower maintenance costs, less downtime, and extended lifecycles. And with cloud connectivity enabling rapid deployment of software and cybersecurity measures, the warfighter will be continually equipped with the latest technologies needed to respond to evolving EW threats.
The future is now
Today’s EW landscape is complex, chameleon-like, and underpinned by the continuous democratization of technology. To turn inside the threat and invert the adversary’s cost curve, the industry must deliver solutions that use data as a weapon. Establishing a resilient, cloud-to-edge architecture that supports dynamic reprogramming and EMBM is a vital path toward weaponizing EW data and achieving overmatch at campaign speed.
U.S. military leadership must retain the strategic vision and willpower to invest in these capabilities while establishing an acquisitions framework that enables industry and academia to contribute to enterprise-wide solutions. Further, the warfighter must have confidence that these rapidly developed technologies will harness data in unprecedented ways that inform how they operate and help them win in future threat environments.
U.S. adversaries have studied the EMSO playbook for decades. They are using widely available technologies to field more advanced systems. It’s time for the U.S. to do the same. After all, the battlespace may be invisible, but it holds the key to mission success across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. Most importantly: Spectrum dominance increases the chances of bringing warfighters home safely. And that’s a goal worth pursuing.
