Second quarterly newsletter: An expert report on the latest activities in the EW Community. Warrior Support Solutions is working to advance the practice and art of deploying EW/EMSO capabilities in all military operations to achieve superiority throughout the electromagnetic spectrum.
The Warrior EW Review
EW ECCT: Warrior Support Solutions is advising on three different Lines of Effort (LOEs) for the EW/EMS Superiority ECCT. The ECCT is making progress but details of activities are being closely guarded. What information is releasable was briefed by Brig Gen Gaedecke (pronounced Gay-De-Ka) at Kittyhawk Week 2018; additional information is included in the Kittyhawk Week section below.
EMS Domain Workshop, hosted by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments
Phase 1: From April – October 2017, the EW EXCOM sponsored the CSBA to lead a series of workshops to determine if the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS) should be declared as a warfighting domain. Tango was invited to provide subject matter expertise to this working group, especially from an Air Force perspective. Led by Mr. Brian Clark, the workshop team completed their assessment, and reported out to the EXCOM on 22 December 17. Their conclusions were:
- The EMS should be designated a warfighting domain just like the other domains: Air, Land, Sea, Space and Cyber;
- There needs to be one direct authority over EW/EMS-related policy, and Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution (PPBE) actions
Phase 2: The EW EXCOM has put CSBA on contract to develop the 2017 DoD EW Strategy Implementation Plan. This next phase will be a “mostly Government” supported effort. Warrior Support Solutions (WSS) is proud to have been personally invited once again to contribute its subject matter expertise to this critical EW document. WSS maintains the full picture of the EW Community (made up of DoD, academia, industry, and federal agencies), and will ensure the Implementation Plan is informed by the entire community’s perspective. We intend to ensure the Implementation Plan is realistic and executable; if we can help it, it will not attempt to deliver another golden hammer.
Voice of the Spectrum
AOC Position Papers: Warrior Support Solutions will be writing two kinds of position papers for the AOC: issue briefings and issue reports. Issue briefings will cover EW/EMS Operations (EMSO) capabilities at a very high level, and issue reports will summarize key activities in the EW, EMSO, Cyber Electromagnetic Activities (CEMA), Information Operations (IO) Communities. The papers are designed to inform US Congress, DoD and other Federal Agencies, Industry, and different components of AOC International. It is an honor to have been selected by the AOC to provide this information to the community.
10th Annual Electronic Warfare Capability Gaps and Enabling Technologies Conference
May 8-10, 2018 | NSWC, Crane, Indiana
The Navy community continues to be interested in what the Air Force is doing in EW, and more specifically, wishes to know details of the Air Force’s plans. Tango answered this call by presenting the Air Force EW Plans & Programs briefing at this year’s conference. The entire EW Community continues to need this information from all the Services, in order to collaborate and strategize on mutual progress in EW capability development. The event was held at a high security level; if you would like more detail, please contact Steve for relevant network contacts: stourangeau@warriorss.com.
2018 Conference – Shaping the Future of EW & Electromagnetic Operations in a Complex World, AOC EW Europe, Lausanne
Melinda presented “Concepts, Collaborative, Coalition and Culture: The New C4 for Electronic Warfare” at this event, which was well-received. She provided perspectives on the state of EW and EMSO as it is being presented at AOC and non-AOC EW events across the United States. She also answered pre-event questions: her responses can be found by clicking here.
Melinda was invited to participate on the final panel with Laurie “Moe” Buckhout, President and CEO of The Corvus Group, Jesse “Judge” Bourque, Senior Defense Analyst, and AOC Executive Committee Secretary, and Lt Col Schmor, German Army, Director NATO Joint EW Core Staff (JEWCS). She answered a question on how she would go about implementing the New C4 for Electronic Warfare. If you’d like to know the answer she provided, contact Melinda at mtourangeau@warriorss.com.
Kittyhawk Week 2018
Tango and Melinda attended Kittyhawk Week June 12-14, 2018, at Wright Patterson AFB, OH. It was well-worth attending, and AFRL keenly demonstrated they continue to lead the charge for EW and EMSO research and development for the Air Force. The AFLCMC EW/EMS Roadmap Team (on which Tango serves), received the Kittyhawk Chapter Excellence Award (pictured right).
On Wednesday morning, Dr. Conley, Deputy Director for EW at OSD A&S, addressed the Kittyhawk audience. In his closing remarks, he said he thought he would have new information available for his presentation at AOC International Symposium and Convention in Washington DC, Nov 27-29, 2018, so be sure to make your plans to attend. On the last day of the event, Brig Gen Gaedecke briefed progress on the EW/EMS Superiority ECCT. Take-aways from his briefing (that we can share) are that the team has defined the problem and scope and continues to gather and assess data. The team prepared a briefing for Gen. Sevy Wilson, VCSAF, to deliver at Corona , taking place the same week at Wright Patterson AFB. Melinda asked BG Gaedecke how the outcomes of the ECCT would drive EW procurement. He answered that EW requirements would be turned over to the new Air Force Warfighter Integration Capability (AFWIC) under the leadership of Maj Gen Crosier. No timeline was given. He also indicated that future procurement in EW would not be in the traditional realm of “industry wants to sell; Air Force will buy.” (Author’s note: His answer led me to believe that industry is being challenged to come up with new ways to create value, win business, and work with the Air Force to usher in a new era of EW technology development and product deployment. I think we are at the leading edge of a wave of new acquisition culture. The company(ies) that figure out the right formula will come out ahead. The company(ies) that dig in their heels and demand that business get done the way it always has will be left behind.)
The AFLCMC EW/EMS Roadmap Team (on which Tango serves), received the Kittyhawk Chapter Excellence Award (pictured right). The EW/EMS Roadmap Team was recognized for updating the EW Roadmap, EV2030, and producing multiple initiatives to modernize legacy aircraft self-protection systems.
Warrior Support Solutions sponsored the Kittyhawk Chapter at the Bronze level, and received an appreciation trophy from Ms. Lisa Fruge-Cirrilli, AOC International President, and Mr. James Utt, President of Kittyhawk Chapter.
Tango’s Perspectives on the current state of EMSO:
Denial of Spectrum Denial (DoSD): One conclusion reached during the CSBA EMS Domain Workshop was that the DoD community takes the spectrum for granted, and assumes it will always be there. WSS has been saying for over a decade that this is a problem, and published an article on this topic: https://warriorss.com/warrior-support-solutions-llc-published-in-atq/
WSS continues to inform the greater military community of the potent threat of spectrum denial, and implore every warfighter to take responsibility for his or her “domain” (to use a relative parlance).
We have been seeing a lot of headlines lately about the Army on their approach to CEMA (see myriad posts at https://www.facebook.com/WarriorSupportSolutions/). This kind of press indicates the Army “gets it;” namely, understands spectrum denial, and the larger context of Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations (EMSO). Similarly, the Navy also gets it, based on what we’ve heard at Pt Mugu and Crane this year. The Navy is doing a lot more than just “protecting the ships;” they are taking advantage of the entirety of the spectrum, not just RF and radar. Based on the Air Force establishing the EW/EMS Superiority ECCT, it is also showing signs that it has gained an appreciation for spectrum. This is probably exactly what Industry wants to hear, because it indicates the DoD is starting to appreciate it has a problem with spectrum denial. Each Service is developing new Concepts of Operations, which will drive requirements for new capabilities. This would drive procurement strategy to obtain new and innovative EW technologies, and industry will be called upon to develop these new technologies.
