Warrior Support Solutions, LLC sends its very best to all of our brave warfighters and veterans who have served this country with distinction, and who made our Independence Day possible. God bless Our Troops!
48th Annual Collaborative Electronic Warfare Symposium
Pt. Mugu, California
2-4 April 2019
The 48th annual symposium provided a lot of classified information that showed where the Navy is going with electromagnetic maneuver warfare, how their programs are progressing, as well as their plans for the future. We saw briefings from the Navy, Marine Corps and the Army that related to their progress on Electromagnetic Battle Management (EMBM) capabilities. There was only one Air Force briefing: “Cooperative EW,” given by Dr. Reginald Cooper, a program manager at the Air Force Research Labs’ Sensors Directorate (AFRL/RY).
Holding this event at the Pt. Mugu facility allowed for an opportunity to see how the Navy is implementing Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) capabilities and Modeling and Simulation (M&S) to advance their Electromagnetic Maneuver Warfare (EMW) capabilities. Pt Mugu also provided tours of their facilities that were consistently full.
Two of the three days of classified presentations were open to our allies from Australia who purchased 11 EA-18G Growlers that operate out of RAAF Base Amberly (outside of Brisbane) and who are partners in the aircraft capabilities. Among the many Aussie partners in the room was the Air Commodore Terry Van Haren, who gave a briefing on how they are integrating the aircraft in their fleet and how, by acquiring mostly American capabilities, they will be better able to integrate with U.S. operations. As our strongest ally in the area, they know that they are a big trigger point in the Pacific region.
WSS has always believed that collaboration in EW is important. Hats off to the Navy for their commitment to holding a collaborative EW symposium that keeps in touch with what the other services, industry and academia are doing in EW and EMSO. Perhaps next year the Air Force will contribute more speakers to the lineup, thus enabling a more complete, true and effective cross-platform and cross-services collaboration in EW capabilities and development.
11th Annual Electronic Warfare Capability Gaps and Enabling Technologies Conference
Crane, IN
14-16 May 2019
The conference was very well attended – probably beyond capacity – as over 400 people signed up. Tango surmises that the high attendance can be attributed to the heightened emphasis on EW and the EMS likely driving new acquisition opportunities which would explain the many members of industry showing up. Additionally, there were a lot of FFRDC, academia and other services in attendance to get a feel for what the Navy is doing along these lines. So, there is much more interest across the community grasping for information.
Crane did tours for the first time this year and, with so many attendees, were challenged to meet the demand. The tours were filled up partly because a lot of people don’t go to Crane for other business, so this was a real opportunity to see what gets done there. The initial impression by the Crane people was, “This isn’t going to work,” but AOC corporate said, “This is exactly the problem you want to have, and this will bring more attendance next year.” Be sure to plan ahead for next year, because AOC/Crane expects to have more tours and have more people attending.
There was a discussion about having future conferences off base, probably outside the west gate at the new conference facility. However, to do so will require that this facility get secured for classified discussion.
Crane, allowing note taking first time this year, briefed the attendees: “You all hold clearances, you are big boys and girls, so don’t write anything down that’s classified. There is a shredder bag in the back of the room if you need it.” So, it was much easier to be there and take unclassified notes, which was greatly appreciated.
Some attendees were hoping to get information on, “this new capability with these new attributes,” so they could position themselves for an acquisition. However, that was not what this conference was about (though it has been like that in the past). The title of the conference was “Capability Gaps and Enabling Technologies.” The construct changed because the new National Defense Strategy (NDS) is looking at a change at a much higher level, so the focus of these capability gap efforts is not technology solutions. What it comes down to is the fact that we have much bigger issues to face in EW reformation including training, manpower, doctrine, and all the rest of the DOTLPF-P needs that need to be addressed first. We talked about organizational issues, cultural issues, training and education issues; items that will not be solved by technology. Certain attendee groups were likely not satisfied with the conference because of the lack of information on technology opportunities. The BIGS get it, though: we have to get through these really big rocks, then worry about the technologies at a later time. This is exactly what the USAF’s EW/EMS Superiority ECCT outcome said, too – technology isn’t the immediate problem.
Bryan Clark did a presentation on the 2017 DoD Strategy Implementation Plan, which CSBA has just completed after conducting four workshops over the last year. That draft is going through O-6 coordination and will be moving into the more senior staff soon. This will point to where the new EMS cross-functional team will follow, and where the EW EXCOM will put energy over the next year or two. Tango’s Take: It is here that industry should expect EW procurement opportunities to emerge.
Who should attend next year? It will be more of the same including an update on how we are moving some of those big rocks, which may reveal the need for some new technologies (systems), therefore industry opportunities.
GTRI-AOC Security Cooperation Symposium
(Formerly the FMS Symposium)
Atlanta, GA
30 April – 2 May 2019
Though hosted by the Peachtree Roost Chapter of the AOC, this event was not EW-specific. Hats off to Lee Simonetta, who did an excellent job of pulling this conference together.
There was EW in the discussion, but not specific EW topics. It was more about how to do business with foreign militaries. This year they held a classified Day 3 that was a SAF-IA Industry Day that was associated with, but not part of, the conference. It went into more specific EW details – systems, issues related to working through the DoD to sell EW-type capabilities to foreign militaries. Tango attended because it was an AOC conference and because the HAF/A5RE Director, Col Ryan “Rhino” Connor, was briefing during the classified event.
Who should attend this conference? Program offices that have a capability they think could be sold to foreign militaries or have had foreign militaries come to them and request systems for which the program offices are responsible. In addition, industry partners who want to do business with FMS should attend. This is a really good opportunity to learn who to reach out to in order to work your way through the FMS process.
Industry note: There were a few opportunities to meet with GTRI on some of the EW programs they are working on, both domestic and foreign. It was also an opportunity to get an update on some of the EW programs that GTRI is supporting such as the ALQ-213 EW Management System flying on platforms to support the National Guard Bureau. They write the complete Operational Flight Plan (OFP) SW that the Guard uses in the 213s.
Keep in mind that this symposium is held every two years and that the core of the discussion is about how to do business with foreign military sales and the steps you have to take within the U.S. federal process in order to do that.
EW Tradespace Analyses Kickoff
WPAFB, OH
AFLCMC/XZA
17-18 April 2019
As the EW/EMS Superiority ECCT wraps up, the working groups supporting the ECCT have coordinated on the implementation plan and are completing the final report. One of the findings from the ECCT was the need for a closer look at how investments in EW capabilities are being made. We now understand the EMS Superiority Implementation Plan was signed on 27 June 2019.
As an initial response to the findings of the ECCT effort, AFLCMC/XZA is kicking off an EW Tradespace Analysis activity to be completed in the next few months, with the intention of providing information to HAF/A5L as the new EMS Superiority Directorate. Looking forward, the intent is to look at what capabilities are currently available, how much those capabilities are costing to sustain, what those capabilities will provide given the new focus of the NDS, and make recommendations for where the Air Force may want to budget for current and future EMS capabilities.
The kickoff meeting included members of the HQ AF Staff, 24th AF, 25th AF, each of the MAJCOMS having EW equities, as well as representatives from the R&D, Acquisition, and Sustainment communities. About 50 people participated in the kickoff meeting WPAFB, OH.
The Tradespace Analyses efforts will be worked concurrently feeding each other with regular updates and will use information from the IC: NASIC, MSIC, NGIC, and other real threat data.
Joint Expendable Countermeasures Working Group
Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, GA
23-26 April 2019
This meeting has been held for about the last 15 years averaging two per year. It is not a conference: it is an Integrated Product Team (IPT) working group meeting. Since its inception, it has had the same mission: to collaborate and cooperate amongst the services to develop and field expendable countermeasures for aircraft survivability. Execution of the IPT rotates between three services: Army, Navy, and Air Force. In the past it has been held at Kirtland AFB, NM; Washington, DC; and St Joseph, MO. The meeting requires classified space which tends to dictate where the event can be held. Invitations are required to attend.
Since it was classified, we cannot share a lot of details. However, one topic that can be shared was the “Health of the Industry,” a progressive discussion to examine how many companies are able to produce expendable products (e.g., explosives). Being a very dangerous business that comes with high risk, accidents have occurred. Some have shut down plants for many months while others have resulted in the loss of life. The expendables production process, which calls for a lot of manual labor, is not highly automated. And since expendables are not high margin items, companies have not been able to invest in automation. Because of the way the military acquisition cycle works, large enough orders are not placed for anybody to get ahead of the curve. Operationally speaking, with no one shooting at us, we are not expending them, and they have a long shelf life. As such, orders and expenditures are down so the companies are reducing capacity.
There are currently three companies producing expendables:
- Northrop Grumman ATK (https://www.northropgrumman.com/Pages/default.aspx ),
- Chemring/Kilgore Flares Company, LLC/Alloy Surfaces (https://www.chemring.co.uk/about-us/our-business/chemring-countermeasures-usa),
- Esterline (http://www.esterline.com/defensetechnologies/).
One of the companies had an accident almost a year ago and has been unable to recover, so they are a year behind on the contract. In the meantime, The U.S. doesn’t have these devices in the inventory. No one else can make them, so the deficit remains. It requires patience and hope, but we have to let these companies recover and get back to business. To fill the gap in production, we need other companies to get into the industry and come up with new designs for the expendables that are less risky. Also, we need to automate to reduce human involvement. All of those things cost money in a market with low margins. DCMA just finished up a year-long study on the state of expendables producers. RFIs for expendables go to a very small community, and there are very few opportunities here, per the earlier discussion. Note of interest: In addition to this discussion on expendable production, both the Navy and Air Force briefed about upcoming plans to upgrade the ALE-47 Countermeasure Dispenser Systems.
The IPT meets in late Jan/early Feb and the last two weeks of August each year. They continue to work on the working group structure and continue to get work done, which is notable and impressive. They coordinate acquisitions of devices with all three services and buy them jointly to save costs. A lot of operators attend this working group meeting, too, because they are trying to make sure that operational requirements get included in the process.
Tango’s Take: This is the most effective IPT I have ever known. I have been involved with this working group virtually since they started (early 2000s). This is a perfect example of how all three services collaborate to achieve mutual benefit and save money. It is a model that should and could be replicated to buy other common technologies, e.g. EW products!
10th Annual Cyber & EW Convergence Conference
Charleston, SC
4-6 June, 2019
This symposium was held at the TS/SCI level and no note taking was allowed, so we cannot say much. What we can say is that the event was held at the newly designated Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) – Atlantic, in Charleston (https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=108593).
This symposium was cyber-heavy, but there were some excellent EW topics briefed. Two briefings in particular were Mr. Paul Tilghman’s brief from DARPA entitled “Cognitive EW Next,” and Mr. Cade Sonnichsen’s brief from 25th AF on the “Arcade” project. If you would like more (unclassified) detail on these briefings, contact Tango at stourangeau@warriorss.com.
Tango’s Take: At this event, the briefings were markedly either cyber or EW. As such, I am not seeing a lot of cyber-EW convergence in these briefings; namely defining what it is, what it means, or what it looks like. I think it is important to define this concept, and I hope there will be progress in this area soon.
Note to industry: Three days at this classification level allows one to hear information that one probably wouldn’t hear anywhere else. The conference value is in the SCI-level discussions, and particularly information from multiple DoD and non-DoD agencies.
WSS Contract News
OSD EW Capacity Study
WSS provided its EW subject matter expertise to help Dynamic Analytics & Test, Inc. (DA&T, https://www.dat-inc.com ) complete an important study for Congress on EW capabilities. The primary focus of the study was to answer a question from Congress on whether or not we are buying enough EA-18Gs. The congressional tasker came to OSD, and OSD asked Dr. Bill Conley to run the study, since Bill is the lead of OUSD A&S’s Tactical EW (his primary day job). Dr. Conley put DA&T on contract in January 2019. The study’s work products included a comprehensive slide deck and a formal report. The final brief-out was held on June 13, 2019, at the Pentagon.
WSS was relied upon to evaluate findings, review and point out inconsistencies in the assessments, and find holes/gaps in conclusions. We validated the assumptions, identified inconsistencies in the analysis, and then we helped construct the final report and briefing. This work is part of our Research, Studies, and Analysis competency that WSS offers all of its clients (https://warriorss.com/core-competencies/). If there is a Phase 2, WSS will be included. WSS was asked to put together a one-page white paper of what we can help with in Phase 2.
OUSD R&E/CSBA – Assessment of U.S. EW and EMSO Capabilities
The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA; https://csbaonline.org) was retained by OUSD R&E to respond to tasking in the 2019 John McCain National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of Fiscal Year 2019 (https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/5515/text) to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the DoD EW plans and programs, as directed by Section 255 of the NDAA. This project will use interviews with leaders and subject matter experts, literature research, and two workshops to explore areas related to EW plans and programs that were not comprehensively considered during development of the EW Strategy Implementation Plan. The two workshops will focus on adversary approaches and capabilities for operations in the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS), DoD’s near-term concepts and capabilities to address adversary EMS operations, and DoD’s plans and programs to gain and sustain EMS superiority as part of a long-term competition with China, Russia, and Iran. The first workshop will be held July 23-24, 2019, and the second on August 20-21, 2019, both at CSBA. CSBA will provide the report to OUSD (R&E) by 2 Sep 2019. The report is due to Congress by 1 Oct 2019.
Warrior Support Solutions, LLC was selected to contribute its EW subject matter expertise to write a critical section of this report called, “Assessment of U.S. EW and EMSO Strategies, Doctrine, Order of Battle, and Programs.” In addition to writing this section, WSS will be attending both workshops.
Tango’s musings:
Latest news on one of our stalwart EW leaders: Dr. Bill Conley, secretary of the EW EXCOM and in charge of OUSD A&S’s Tactical EW is leaving this position on July 19th, 2019. We thank Bill sincerely for his leadership, devotion, and his work progressing EW in the DoD. We will miss him and wish him the best of luck with his future plans. We hope to see you on the EW circuit, Bill! I expect he will be replaced, and his dual roles will be upheld. The EW EXCOM is a long-term, long-standing organization. It is written in law that the EW EXCOM will exist.
In other news:
- Selva is leaving his position as the Vice Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (and also as the Director of the EW EXCOM). He is being replaced by Gen. John E. Hyten (https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/108115/general-john-e-hyten/), currently commander of USSTRATCOM, which owns Joint EW, the JEWC, and JEPAC. As of this publication, his date for officially taking over the position has not been announced. We are optimistic that Gen. Hyten can and will “spell EW,” and will be able to make contributions to EW and EMSO capabilities across the DoD.
Dog-Gone-it, I lost my BONE! Mr. Sloan “Bone” Butler, EW SME, retired AF officer, and long-time MacB (https://www.macb.com) employee, will be retiring on July 15, 2019 from his second career as an EW SME. Bone spent the last 15 years sitting at HQ ACC serving as an EW advisor to the PEO. In his role at ACC, he became the EPAWSS POC and ACC’s fighter aircraft EW go-to-guy for F-15 and F-16. Sitting in ACC A5A (Combat Forces Division) for the last eight years, he advised ACC A5/8/9, A5/8ZW and A5A. Bone, thanks for your 42 total years of dedicated service to the USAF and good luck getting to know your grandchildren on the farm. It will be difficult to replace you and you will be missed!
One shortfall I see for the Air Force in the larger EW community is that it doesn’t appear to have a keynote speaker or a single person who consistently shares the “Air Force EW” message. The other services have this kind of leadership/speakership. The Air Force has some work to do to set the stage for collaborating and cooperating across the entire DoD community, industry, and academia.
Where will WSS Be in Q3 2019?
July 2019:
- EW Tradespace Analysis | July 1-3, 2019, WPAFB, OH
- GTRI-sponsored EW Technical Interchange Meeting | July 9-11, 2019; Atlanta
- Wright Dialogue with Industry (http://www.wrightdialogue.org) | July 16-18, 2019; Dayton Convention Center, Dayton, OH
- EW Assessment Workshop #1, CSBA (https://csbaonline.org) | July 23-24, 2019; Washington DC (supporting OUSD R&E)
- Changing the Role of Data in Military Systems Workshop #2, CSBA (https://csbaonline.org) | July 30-31, 2019, Washington DC (supporting OUSD A&S)
August 2019:
- EW Tradespace Analysis | August 12-15, 2019; WPAFB, OH
- EW Assessment Workshop #2, CSBA (https://csbaonline.org), | Aug 20-21, 2019; Washington DC (supporting OSD R&E)
September 2019:
- 8th Annual AOC Pacific Conference (https://www.crows.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1231765&group=) | Sept 9-12, 2019; Honolulu, HI
–or–
- 3rd AOC Electromagnetic Maneuver Warfare Symposium (https://www.crows.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1169204 ) | Sept 10-11, 2019 NSWC, Dahlgren VA
- AFA Air, Space & Cyber Conference (https://www.afa.org/events/calendar/2019-09-16/air-space-cyber-conference) | Sept 16-18, 2019; National Harbor, MD
- EW Tradespace Analysis | September 23-26, 2019, WPAFB, OH
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.
