Third 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.
AFA 2018 Air, Space & Cyber Conference:
Multi-Domain Operations: Leveraging the Full Spectrum
Sep 17-19, 2018 | National Harbor, MD
At this event, SECAF Heather Wilson announced the Air Force needs 74 additional squadrons to properly enable it for future military operations. There was a lot of discussion about multi-domain operations (this year’s conference theme), but no mention of Electronic Warfare, Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations, or the ongoing EW/EMS Superiority ECCT, the cornerstone for fulfilling successful multi-domain operations. It has been 10 months since the ECCT was announced, but the criticality of EW/EMSO superiority has yet to make its way into the hearts and minds of AF senior leadership. We had the unique opportunity to chat with a number of senior leaders while we were wandering the exhibit floor and were led to believe the Air Force is not ready to make significant organizational changes in order to obtain EMS superiority.
We are left to ask, where will the AF get the pilots needed to fill these new squadrons (given the reported pilot shortage), and how will these squadrons survive the next A2/AD, contested/congested engagement? It would appear that the Air Force remains in Denial of Spectrum Denial (DoSD).
EW Strategy Implementation Plan Working Group, hosted by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA):
Early in 2018, the EW EXCOM put CSBA on contract to develop the 2017 DoD EW Strategy Implementation Plan. This Plan was confirmed in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), citing that the EW EXCOM must provide an actionable, executable plan to Congress to fulfill the goals of the 2017 EW Strategy. An example of the plan’s content is, what kind of training is needed to build and maintain an EW-ready force, and how do we implement this training? WSS attended the first two workshops.
AOC Advocacy SIGINT Industry Partnership Project (IPP):
Congressional Panel Discussion and Industry Solutions Forum (ISF), “Winning the EMS: The Future of Army SIGINT,” 18 July 2018 | Washington D.C.
Warrior Support Solutions was invited to attend the AOC Advocacy’s SIGINT IPP event focusing on the US Army’s initiative to combine SIGINT, EW and Cyber operations across its entire force. WSS was charged with contributing to the AOC’s Position Paper on the topic. Army senior leadership across the entire G-staff are committed to EW/Cyber/SIGINT as a combined capability. Click to read.
U.S. Navy ATEDS:
24th Advanced Technology Electronic Defense Systems (ATEDS) Conference, August 28-29, 2018 | La Jolla, CA
PMA-272 sponsored its 24th annual (classified) ATEDS Conference at the La Jolla Hilton Resort in late August. Notable highlights from the conference were briefings on F/A-18 and EA-18G survivability requirements, and where the Navy is going with expendables, future capabilities, and test ranges. A briefing on rotary wing survivability covered the ALQ-39D(V)-2 RWR, one area where the Navy is collaborating with the Army, and one success story for its campaign to share EW technologies. The Navy also hosted an aircrew team from the F-15 EPAWSS Test & Eval community, because the Navy is potentially interested in that system for its F-18 aircraft.
The Navy continues to demonstrate its eagerness to collaborate with the other Services on EW solutions to avoid duplication of effort, achieve a greater product, and save all of the Services time and money.
AFLCMC Industry Days 2018:
On 12-13 September 2018, Warrior Support Solutions attended the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) Industry Days at the University of Dayton’s Daniel J. Curran Place conference facility. The event was well-attended, with sold-out registrations a week before the event. AFLCMC PEOs briefed their plans for future procurement opportunities in EW and spectrum-dependent capabilities. These are POM’d capabilities, expected to be funded with future dollars.
Steve can help guide your research dollars and program decisions to coincide with Air Force plans, or put you in touch with the right contacts in the Air Force to advance your technologies. Contact him for more information at stourangeau@warriorss.com.
AFLCMC Industry Days are held to create an environment for industry to collaborate with the Air Force on new ideas.
Voice of the Spectrum
AOC Position Papers:
Warrior Support Solutions authored a comprehensive position paper for the AOC on the future of Compass Call. This paper covered the cross-decking of the Air Force’s critical EW capability from the C-130H platform to the EC-37B, a modified Gulfstream G550. It highlights the pros and cons of this cross-decking, and identifies several capabilities that the Air Force will need to address in the future. WSS also contributed to the AOC Advocacy brief: Army SIGINT IPP, and the corresponding article in the September 2018 Journal of Electronic Defense (JED): “The Monitor News, US ARMY LEADERS DISCUSS NEW SIGINT STRATEGY.” WSS looks forward to continuing our support of the AOC Advocacy Initiative. More detail about this initiative can be by clicking here.
Warrior Support Solutions is proud to announce that Steve has been added to the Journal of Electronic Defense’s (JED) Editorial Advisory Board. In this capacity, Steve will contribute to the editorial content of the flagship publication of our industry. We thank Mr. John Knowles, JED Editor in Chief, for extending Steve an invitation for this prestigious assignment.
Tango’s Perspectives on the current state of EMSO:
Denial of Spectrum Denial (DoSD) update: Over the last three months, we attended six Defense-related conferences. We didn’t hear any reports of activities related to ensuring access to the spectrum. We know the Air Force has defined a strategy that is nearly 100% dependent on access to the spectrum, yet we do not know of any TTP development or training programs within the Air Force to ensure its objectives can be met when spectrum is denied.
In our travels, we are not hearing of many/any new Air Force EW procurement opportunities, despite the growing importance of EW capabilities.
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.
