The Army is working on a tool to provide Electronic Warfare (EW) officers with a new way to do business that will allow commanders to think in new ways about how to use their (EW) capability and projected effects, and know more about adversary capabilities, the division chief said.
Raytheon [RTN] is building the tool under a potential five-year, nearly $98 million contract.
Photo: U.S. Army
The Army has “never created or fielded an integrated management and planning tool for EW officers,” Col. Jim Ekvall, Army Electronic Warfare Division chief, said.
Techniques to communicate within the electromagnetic spectrum are changing rapidly to keep up with what commercial industry is doing, he said. “Working in the spectrum and how the spectrum is used is more and more intellectually challenging.” What one hears fairly often is that the electromagnetic spectrum is “contested and congested.”
Right now, EW officers use myriad ways to plan and manage, from spreadsheets to acetates, maps and overlays. They do send data back and forth, but there’s no specific system designed to give them the ability to “plan, integrate and synchronize” electronic warfare.
The goal: to better inform commanders what capabilities they can take advantage of, what effects that capability will have, and to gain insight on what the enemy is doing inside the battlespace in the electromagnetic spectrum.
“Electronic warfare is about how do we gain and maintain an advantage in the electromagnetic spectrum,” Ekvall said.
One example, Ekvall said, is if a maneuver commander wants to prevent enemy communications on a specific frequency for specific period of time. If the EW officer doesn’t have the needed assets, he or she will coordinate with other units or services to get the capability. The new management planning tool will be able to do that more quickly and efficiently, replacing paper forms, e-mails and calls.
The new tool will “plug into the overall electromagnetic battle management plan,” which includes what assets are available, to include national assets, he said. The EW officer will have access to see what’s there, plan and manage the work.
“It will reach initial operating capability in the third quarter of Fiscal Year ’15,” Ekvall said. Then it moves to testing.
“We’re looking for this to be fully operationally capable and beginning to be fielded in the fourth quarter of FY ’19.”
Aside from the software, the form the new planning management tool takes is not yet determined. Ekvall said it could be something that pulls apps and data from the Cloud. “The material developer–Raytheon–will look at how and what Army needs, and how to make it work.”
“The new tool will “help commanders see EW in a different light,” he said.
“From the Army perspective, EW is a growing field,” Ekvall said. The importance of the Army’s ability to gain and maintain an advantage independent of the other services is more recognized today than previously. “The proper application of EW is how we provide commanders the ability to gain and maintain the advantage in the spectrum and deny the enemy the same.”
This becomes even more complicated as countries adapt their ways to communicate. It adds another dimension of difficulty, he said.