Electronic Warfare Specialists On The Frontline
In the age of digital communications, the US Army’s ability to dominate the electromagnetic spectrum can significantly influence the outcome of future armed conflicts. Consequently, the US Army will pilot a new idea to place coders and software developers at the 'tactical edge' of the battlefield to reprogram electronic warfare and communications systems.
The US Army is preparing to field a raft of electronic warfare equipment, including combined cyber and signals intelligence, that it needs to be able to rapidly reprogram these systems to exploit new signals that it might encounter over the course of a conflict.
The pilot program, operation Starblazor, aims to identify gaps in Army capabilities and provide actionable information to develop military doctrine. In particular, Starblazor will will help military leaders learn what is needed to train the cyber and electronic warfare operators with existing equipment and what these personnel will need for any future conflict
The US Army has recently created a new military occupational specialty within its cyber branch dedicated to software development. Those specialists sit alongside operators and build tools on the spot to keep up with the dynamic environment of cyberspace. During World War II, jamming missions conducted by Allied forces successfully disrupted German command and control systems and navigation capabilities. When adversaries used radio-controlled improvised explosive devices to attack ground forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US Army defended its Soldiers with newly developed tools that jammed radio-activated triggers.
Today, If the Army finds itself in a conflict with another nation-state, it will likely come across signals it hasn’t seen before. This presents problems for the force because it won’t know how to exploit or defeat those signals until it categorizes them.
In the Cold War, this could take years, but now with software-defined systems, new signals can be deployed, detected and tweaked in weeks. Starblazor will help determine what new code developers need and provide information for capability development for large acquisition programs while they’re still in the research and development phase.
Defense News: I-HLS: Army.mil: C4SRNet: CROWS: Image: Unsplash
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