Q1 – 2019

To all our brave warriors serving overseas or mainland who work to ensure our precious American freedoms: We Salute You!

 

EW Strategy Implementation Plan Workshop

CSBA Headquarters, Wash D.C.
8-10 January 2019

This was the last of the four workshops held by CSBA to develop the EW Strategy Implementation Plan (I-Plan). Dr. Bill Conley, SES, Director, Electronic Warfare, OUSD (A&S), kicked off the workshop. The theme of his talk was, “Decreasing or impacting the confidence our adversary has in their own information.” Brian Clark, Senior Fellow, CSBA, gave an overview of the project, and reported that everything is on schedule.

The theme of the workshop was to discuss the EW industrial base in America. Do we have the right industry resources and capacities to develop and field EW capabilities? The discussion was broken into two areas: companies that develop EW technologies, and engineering talent. We have the expertise we need, but we don’t have enough technical workforce to produce what we need. Finding EW engine`ers has proven to be a challenging prospect, and Association of Old Crows has been working on this issue for some time (https://careers.crows.org). The shortage can be attributed to a few things. First, these technical professionals must be able to obtain and hold a security clearance, something that must be planned for at a young age, to keep their “records clean.” Second, there are higher-paying engineering jobs outside the DoD. Third, companies are merging, thus displacing key talent to divest redundant skill sets. Liberating engineers from stable jobs forces them to go to the Internet to look for jobs, where they may find higher-paying opportunities, or just more fun jobs than DoD EW (e.g. Google, Amazon, gaming).

EW Risk from Major Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions shrink the qualified competitive industrial complex capable of creating EW technology. Competition drives the vital innovation needed to keep up with advancing technology. A perfect example is the recent merger of Harris and L3 Technologies. (https://www.l3t.com/press-release/harris-corporation-and-l3-technologies-combine-merger-equals-create-global-defense).  These companies will have to dispose of “like” capabilities (e.g. Harris’ night vision optics division), because they could potentially compete with one another. Even though Elbit Systems will obtain the night vision operations business from Harris, we are now left with one less company that produces EW technology.

Col. “Dollar” Young, Commander, 53rd EW Group, Eglin AFB, briefed the future of EW reprogramming in the USAF. This was one of the three actions to come out of the EW ECCT (see more detail here (<SPDE – Strategic Interchange Meeting>). EW reprogramming is centered on Mission Data Files, a software program containing threat data. Every time we get new information, the program must be rewritten/revised/tested and then fielded. We already know we can’t keep up with the threat, but what Dollar was driving at is to expand the Specialized Electronic Combat Tools and Reprogramming Environment (SPECTRE) capability to see that every mission software data file above the OFP level will have the ability to be revised and fielded within minutes to hours, rather than days and weeks. He refers to this new type of ready-data as mission-ware.

Community current event:  Dollar will be leaving his position as Commander, 53rd EWG, and he is also retiring from active duty. His replacement, Col. David “Chimi” Perez, is taking over the 53rd this summer, 2019. Chimi is currently the JEPAC Director, and he was Dollar’s deputy before going to JEPAC.

Having completed the last workshop, CSBA now has the task of developing the I-Plan with all they collected from the four workshops. WSS expects to have more information on the I-Plan for next quarter’s newsletter.

Tango has all the briefings from this workshop. Since they involve industry capabilities and capacities, the material might be of interest to several partners. If one of them is you, please call Tango at (603)-459-3619. Be advised some material is proprietary/government only. We will do our best to accommodate your questions while honoring these distribution statements.

AOC Huntsville, Modern Threats: Surface-to-Air-Missle Systems Conference

Redstone Arsenal, AL
5-7 February 2019

This event was held at MSIC, Missile and Space Intelligence Center, on Redstone Arsenal. The conference was titled, “Modern Threats: Surface to Air Missile Systems.” The conference was classified; no note taking was allowed. Dr. Bill Conley provided the keynote address. The rest of the conference was facilitated by threat system experts from MSIC, providing updates on foreign SAM systems. It was very well attended, likely because of the topic. This EW Community is eager for information given the promulgation of the National Defense Strategy and the renewed interest in EW capabilities to support the NDS. This conference provides industry with information for where the next R&D dollars should be spent. It identifies key focus areas for industry’s tech development. Industry needs to know where the threat capabilities are so they can focus their efforts on technologies to defeat those threats. Industry does not typically have easy access to this type of information.

SDPE – Strategic Interchange Meeting

The SMART Center, Joint Base Andrews, MD
19-22 February 2019

One year ago, SDPE held this inaugural event kicking off the highly anticipated EW/EMS Superiority ECCT (our hopes were set high on that day). This year’s event enabled SDPE to provide a brief overview of the conclusions and recommendations that came out of this third and final ECCT.  At the same time and in the next room, Col. Ryan “Rhino” Conner, Director, USAF Electronic Warfare (HAF/A5RE), briefed the specific outcomes of the EW/EMS ECCT to the SECAF and CSAF. Notably, he received immediate approval and Go-DO from CSAF and SECAF, lending credibility to the notion that senior leadership finally understands how critical spectrum availability is to our nation’s defenses.  Additionally, SDPE provided the attendees with its plans for upcoming Demonstrations and Experiments related to EW capabilities.

Here is a summary of the outcomes of the EW/EMS Superiority ECCT:

  1. AF designated a new position within the Air Staff for a general officer to lead EMS Superiority. Up till now, that has been an O-6 (colonel; a.k.a. Col. Ryan Conner),
  2. AF will consolidate all AF reprogramming within the 53rd EW Group, and expand the mission, and;
  3. Air Education and Training Command (AETC) is going to drive a change in AF culture by introducing what the EMS is, and how important it is to all functions within the Air Force. AETC will be training EMSO capabilities to all airmen at every level, from E-1 through O-6, and flag officers. This step should help ameliorate the very fatal mindset of Denial of Spectrum Denial (https://warriorss.com/warrior-support-solutions-llc-published-in-atq/) .

WSS Note: We are relieved these recommendations were approved so quickly by both CSAF and SECAF, a critical component in getting any change to occur in Air Force doctrine, policy, culture, and procedure.

This engagement also facilitated a (mostly-classified) Strategic Interchange Meeting (SIM) to provide industry with an outlook on the types of activities SDPE plans to conduct and fund in the next year. No specific details were given to the collective audience about upcoming FedBizOpps announcements, but the venue did provide for face-to-face meetings with SDPE reps where more details on these funding opportunities were discussed.

Industry partners: helpful marketing note. Attending these SIMs can really be a valuable business opportunity because you get to interface with government personnel who have money to fund experiments and demonstrations.  If you have a TRL-level 3-4-5-6 product, this is an opportunity to discuss your product, get SDPE to fund a demonstration or experiment, and get it in front of relevant AF decision makers.

SDPE is an Air Force entity stood up in May 2016 to focus on three objectives:

  1. Bring innovation and acceleration to the acquisition process;
  2. Monitor activities related to the ECCT conclusions from each of the three ECCTs: Air Superiority, MDC2, and EW/EMS Superiority (incidentally, their involvement in EW is because of their tasking to shepherd the ECCT outcomes, not because their work is inherently EW/EMSO-focused); and,
  3. Fund and monitor experimentation and demonstration of critical Air Force capabilities.

Future of SDPE:  At this SIM, there was a briefing delivered about SDPE’s future home: Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability,  AFWIC (https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1417945/air-force-leaders-implement-new-warfighting-planning-process/). In this calendar year, SDPE is expected to roll out from under AFRL and reside in AFWIC.  AFWIC is taking responsibility for current ECCT activities and future cross-cutting activities. There will be no more ECCTs at the AF level. AFWIC’s daily job is to realize capabilities across the Service’s core functions, something that has not been done in the Air Force for a very long time. All of the core functions existed, but capabilities were not being addressed because of the core function structure (responsibility to implement resided at the platform level).

AFA Air Warfare Symposium 2019

Rosen Shingle Creek Conference Center, Orlando FL
28  Feb – 1 Mar 2019

This symposium is primarily a pep rally for the troops (Tango’s view), attended by a large number of Air Force military personnel (bags/ABUs/blue suiters/active duty, Reserves and Guard), including key Air Force senior leaders such as SECAF and CSAF. Given that, it is a real opportunity for industry to speak 1-1 with AF senior leaders. Tango did notice that the industry exhibition hall was full, with a lot of large booths. Tango noted many AF senior leaders walking through the exhibit hall speaking to key industry partners.

(Note to industry: if you haven’t been attending AFA Symposiums, and you wish to establish credibility and recognition with the Air Force, consider attending in the future, e.g. https://www.afa.org/events/calendar/2019-09-16/air-space-cyber-conference)

SECAF, Heather Wilson kicked off the event. She was very passionate, but we felt she could have given more details on Electronic Warfare capabilities and the importance of the Air Force working with the other services to realize mission operations. She is resigning later this spring to take an academic leadership role as president of the University of Texas at El Paso. We were pleased to hear her say two things about spectrum availability: 1) you won’t be able to be told what to do, specifically because you won’t have spectrum to enable communications, and, 2) you won’t be able to tell where your partners are, or what they’re doing. This is huge in terms of senior AF leaders (and key decision makers) realizing that we need capabilities in spectrum access in order to conduct our all military operations (this could mean more opportunities for industry). She also mentioned that we need 76 more squadrons, the same message she delivered in September of 2018 at AFA.

There was a lot of discussion at the Symposium about changing the way the Air Force acquires capabilities.

Ret. Lt. Gen. Deptula, President of the Mitchell Institute (http://www.mitchellaerospacepower.org) led a Combat Air Forces panel.  Gen. James “Mike” Holmes (Commander ACC) participated in the panel, and he spoke about the need to train in a realistic and representative environment. He understands that spectrum will be denied, so we need to train in that kind of environment. However, we don’t yet have that environment. He said we need to put more effort into Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) Training to properly prepare our forces. He also recognizes that MDC2 capabilities are dependent on spectrum.  To ameliorate this condition, the Air Force/ACC is moving toward an Information Warfare (IW) capability area, with the integration of 24th and 25th Numbered Air Forces this summer. EW will be part of this newly-merged organization, since it will bring with it the 55th Wing in particular, with the Rivet Joint and Compass Call platforms.

This is the first time at a general community symposium that Tango heard more than one senior leader (e.g. Gen. Sevy Wilson, VCSAF) express concern about denied spectrum environments, and our ability to operate in them. Tango believes we cleared this hurdle because of two reasons. 1) The Services have now gotten their hands around the National Defense Strategy and are beginning to realize what it means to their future operations, and 2) the completion and brief out of the EW/EMS Superiority ECCT, which raised the issue of spectrum denial. It will be up to the new AFWIC to see that mission readiness is carried out with spectrum denial capabilities. AETC will need to step up to create realistic training environment to get us ready.

Gen. Goldfein, CSAF, finished up the symposium with motivating remarks, solidifying the pep rally for the troops.

Electronic Warfare & Avionics (EWA) Conference

(Formerly: Air Force Technical Program, a.k.a. Dixie Crow Symposium)

AFLCMC/WNY, Robins AFB, GA
24-27 March 2019

If you’d like a copy of Tango’s briefing(s), contact him at: stourangeau@warriorss.com

Tango gave two presentations at this year’s event. The first was WSS’s “Denial of Spectrum Denial” briefing. In this talk, Tango explains how the Air Force has devised nearly 100% of TTP’s and mission plans given that spectrum will be available, and yet it is unquestionable that spectrum will be denied in future engagements. How will we operate? He implores the audience to get educated, and to seek solutions for denied spectrum. The second briefing was on the AFEWCIS Process: Air Force Electronic Warfare Capabilities Investment Strategy, AFEWCIS has been analyzing and reporting on AF EW capabilities and development since 2003. It is designed to provide an assessment of current AF EW capabilities against stated AF Strategies. It delivers detailed analyses on EW capabilities, and acts as a repository for EW-related information. Both briefings were well-received despite the hammering going on the roof, as the Air Museum at Warner Robins was undergoing major renovations during the entire symposium.

The focus and theme of this symposium was Open Architectures (OA). There were a lot of sessions on the different aspects of hardware and software open architectures. OA is a non-proprietary way of plugging systems into a backbone and enabling the interfaces to accept those systems. It is essentially, “this is what your LRU will look like with this backplane and infrastructure,” e.g. size, form factor, weight, power, and how the LRU will communicate within the box. In order for the backbone and interfaces to be non-proprietary, there has to be a basic set of standards. This capability area is moving quite rapidly, and industry needs to be kept abreast of all developing protocols and standards. Attending these symposiums is one sure way to make this happen. If you cannot attend in person, consider calling Tango (603-459-3619) to see if he can take notes for you.

There were a lot of technical presentations and discussions related to OA

  • The only way to explain OA is to go deep technically
  • Capability (R&D) is being done to move this technology forward
  • We must understand how things are going to work together and how the infrastructure is going to be built, so that industry products will fully and seamlessly integrate
  • The large defense contractors can no longer develop a proprietary system and expect to be providing it for the rest of its service life.

Col.  Ryan “Rhino” Conner, Director A5RE, delivered a classified briefing on the results of the EW/EMS Superiority ECCT. In it he described the future of Air Force EW activities. Key takeaways are (and this was also briefed at SDPE, outlined above):

  • Developing an organization with leadership at the general officer level in the Air Staff, HAF/A5L,
  • Emphasis on developing and fixing the AF EW reprogramming capability, and growing that initiative, and;
  • AETC is taking on the changing the culture piece by developing and integrating spectrum discussions at all levels of Basic Training through senior officer (SOS/ACSC/AWC)
    • Training will now examine spectrum and EW exercises at all operating levels.

As usual, Dixie Crow was well attended and made for a good networking environment, all translating to great opportunities for industry.  There was good representation of AF EW leadership, facilitating good discussion between vendors and government. The Dixie Crow chapter continues to demonstrate its success as a Distinguished Large Chapter of AOC, and it is always a pleasure to attend this conference. I would like to thank the organizers of the EWA Symposium for giving me the chance to speak twice at this year’s event. I look forward to working with the impressive legacy of EW experts at Robins AFB to bring about the Go-DO’s from the EW/EMS Superiority ECCT. We have a lot of work ahead of us.

WSS New Contract News

Dynamic Analytics & Test, Inc.

In 2018, Warrior Support Solutions teamed up with Dynamic Analytics & Test, Inc. (DAT, https://www.dat-inc.com) to perform work on an EW Capacity Study in response to a 2018 tasking by Congress to OSD (A&S). Congress wants to know if the U.S. military has purchased enough EA-18G Growlers, and does that number provide enough capability and capacity for any potential activity listed in the National Defense Strategy.

On Jan 11, 2019, the combined team of DA&T and WSS met with Dr. Bill Conley at the Pentagon to kick off the study effort. A large Navy contingent was present, since the EA-18G is their asset. AF Compass Call (CC) was also in attendance, because CC is the Air Force contribution to Airborne Electronic Attack (AEA). Phase 1 of this study will continue through early summer of 2019, intending to answer the basic question from Congress: Do we need more EA-18G’s?  Phase 2 will unfold into a bigger EW capacity study, and work to answer the next question from Congress: What else do we need beyond EA-18Gs?

Warrior Support Solutions was asked to participate in this study because of its unparalleled subject matter expertise in Air Force Electronic Warfare. WSS is the only consultant/contractor that possesses the breadth of knowledge and the network required to perform this task successfully.

Alaire Technologies, Inc.

Warrior Support Solutions, LLC is proud to be teamed with Alaire Technologies, Inc. on the following contract vehicle:

  • Office of Naval Research (ONR) IDIQ: Prime Contract No.: N00173-16-D-6001

Engineering and technical support to the Naval Research Laboratory, Applied Optics Division Code 5600 for “Development, Testing and Assessment of Advanced Electro-Optic/Infrared (EO/IR) Aircraft Self-Protection Systems and Advanced Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) Systems”

For more information about Warrior Support Solutions LLC consulting opportunities under this contract, please contact Steve Tourangeau at stourangeau@warriorss.com.

Keysight Technologies, Inc.

Melinda and Steve discuss key EW technologies with Mr. Chris Johnston, Director– Strategic Pursuits, Aerospace Defense & Government Solutions. WSS is helping Keysight identify strategic Air Force EW plans and programs for mutual benefit.

Tango’s musings:

Latest headlines for Air Force and EW: Have we finally arrived?

http://www.airforcemag.com/Features/Pages/2019/April 2019/USAF-Refocusing-on-Electronic-Warfare-After-Years-of-Counterinsurgency-Operations.aspx

Since 2004, I have been working with sincere devotion to see that EW capabilities get consideration across the entire Air Force. As a Cold War EWO veteran, I along with all of my blue-dressed brethren trained for operations in an environment where we could not depend on secure access to spectrum. Then, I had to watch as our Air Force abandoned TTPs containing basic (non-technological) contingencies for operating in contested spectrum environments, in favor of connected, networked capabilities embedding our country’s rapidly advancing technologies. I can see why it looked like a good idea at the time: our Air Force reformulating to look like a Star Wars-type Superpower to the entire world. But, the fundamental need for assured access to spectrum got lost in the shuffle.

Of late, I am seeing multiple headlines a week in defense publications reporting on the Air Force’s return to focus on spectrum access. I like to believe this is due to the EW/EMS Superiority ECCT getting the job done: elucidating the vital spectrum capabilities needed across all Core Functions and all Air Force platforms. I want to say, “thank you” to the entire ECCT team for hunkering down and calling it like it needed to be called. And, I must add, “Finally!” Not a minute too soon.

Since the SDPE SIM held just two months ago, the following progress has been made: 1) The Air Force has officially established a new three-letter under the A5 (which will be known as A5L), responsible for EMS Superiority, and the current A5RE will be rolled into A5L; 2) Brig. Gen. David “Trout” Gaedecke has been officially announced as the Director, Air Force EMS Superiority. He will be leaving his dual position as Director, Cyberspace Operations and Warfighting Integration, Office of Information Dominance, and Chief Information Officer, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force (AF CIO), in order to fill this new role. The new office is at the Air Staff level, it will be exercised at the Pentagon and Gaedecke will assume the role this summer.

The USAF now has a one-star general officer in charge of EW, and this is an excellent first step in changing the fundamental fabric of Air Force doctrine around spectrum. Now we must stand back and give the new General Officer the chance to take the reins, exercising cross-cutting authority and responsibility to close AF EW capability gaps. However, this by itself is not adequate to address the gap in spectrum capabilities that has emerged over the last two decades (since the beginning of the Gulf War). The culture piece must be addressed, and AETC has a big task ahead of them to conduct training at all levels to raise EMS awareness.

The Go-Do’s of the EW/EMS Superiority ECCT give me great confidence. I’m excited about the possibilities. We have been asking for this kind of focus since the early 2000s, so this is a big victory for EW. The timing couldn’t be better given the impending release of the new DoD EW Strategy Implementation Plan and the continued fielding of the JEMSO doctrine.

I also firmly believe that industry, government and academia play an integral role in realizing a future of EMS Superiority. We all must cooperate, collaborate and be knowledgeable on the same things to grow the capabilities that will be required to be fully EW/EMSO ready, fully-prepared for denied spectrum, and be able to conduct traditional EA/EP/ES. Likewise, the Air Force must be able to listen and respond rapidly to this kind of capability development, so that its mission readiness is synchronized and harmonized with Joint and Coalition doctrine.

What does this shift mean for industry? We’ve seen an uptick of interest from the platform SPOs in assessing their aircraft survivability in a contested and highly-contested spectrum arena, and what their mission might be in that arena. Specifically, the F-16, B-52, and B-1 platforms are moving forward with assessments of their capabilities and potentially new requirements. The AEA Capability Manager at WPAFB is kicking off an EW Trade Space Analysis in April 2019 to assess where the AF needs to focus on improved aircraft survivability. There is an expectation this will lead to new requirements (can you hear the angel choirs singing?), and new RFPs for new capabilities as early as FY21, which could potentially influence the 21 POM.

WSS recommends that industry keep in touch with contacts at WPAFB. For all partners who have reps at Wright Patterson, keep an eye out. The SPOs are going out and asking questions on how to get more capability. Also, Rhino is briefing at the upcoming 11th Annual Electronic Warfare Capability Gaps and Enabling Technologies Conference (14-16 May 2019, https://www.crows.org/page/Crane2019). I recommend to industry that whenever A5L is briefing at a conference, you should be there to get the latest information (hot off the press). If you can’t be there (and can’t wait for our next quarterly newsletter), contact Tango for Intel opportunities, 603-459-3619.

Where will WSS Be in Q1 2019?

We hope to see you at one of these distinguished EW events!

If you would like additional information on any of these topics, visit our website: www.warriorss.com, or contact us directly: Steve Tourangeau, stourangeau@warriorss.com.

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