Army advances electronic warfare ‘arsenal’ at recent capstone experiment

The Army tested and matured its “arsenal” concept for conducting electronic warfare at the service’s major capstone exercise earlier this year, according to officials.

The electromagnetic spectrum arsenal serves as a set of exploits in the radio frequency sense, that can be loaded on platforms for a set of targets. It’s a centralized location where soldiers can find details of each EW technique — including descriptions and implementation parameters or configurations — that can be used in support of electronic warfare mission planning and effects. It also offers a database that can be used for rapid reprogramming against adversary signals or techniques.

The advanced modern state of EW involves a constant cat-and-mouse game between friendly forces and adversaries. Each side aims to jam or deny the other’s access to spectrum for communications or other systems, while also seeking to geolocate forces based on electronic emissions and enable freedom of maneuver for themselves.

Once a signal is detected that is not in the U.S. military’s existing library of known systems, personnel must work to reprogram capabilities to counter it, which during the Cold War, could take weeks to months as the signal had to be sent back to a lab, a fix devised, and then sent back to the field.

The modern battlefield requires much faster, near real-time reprogramming that negates the need to send it back to a central repository.

Existing mission planning toolsets provide electronic warfare officers with a fairly limited and rudimentary set of capabilities to support commanders at the tactical edge.

The Army’s program office in charge of the arsenal refers to it as “knowledge repository” that can be used to augment EW officers’ ability to understand what tools they have available to address commanders’ needs. For example, it provides a set of capabilities the operator can leverage if a commander wants to create an effect against a specific adversary using a particular set of equipment.

“The Arsenal is a method of allowing our electronic warfare officers to understand what capabilities they have at their disposal,” Bret Eddinger, senior engineer for offensive electronic warfare, stated in an Army news release. “[W]hat we need to realize is that electronic warfare is just another form of fire, but it is not as stringently characterized as our traditional forms of firearms. The EW Arsenal is attempting to provide that characterization.”

The arsenal database or repository of electronic warfare techniques, allows forces to go after targets faster.

Over the last year, the arsenal has matured from a lab-based proof of concept into a collaborative pilot program, according to a spokesperson from program executive office for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors.

That pilot effort involves participation from the program office, Combat Capabilities Development Command’s C5ISR Center and the Army Reprogramming Analysis Team.

The arsenal team at Project Convergence Capstone 5 in March at Fort Irwin, California, conducted testing utilizing surrogate targets and representative EW program-of-record systems, the spokesperson said. The test scenario involved a tactical operator leveraging the arsenal’s interface to synchronize with the enterprise-level database, discovering relevant capabilities for a given scenario and identifying potential courses of action. An operator then selected and used an electronic warfare capability on a designated platform, observing and evaluating the resulting effects.

Army officials said Project Convergence sought to gain feedback and assess the arsenal’s ability to reduce the cognitive burden on soldiers.

This experimentation was in concert with a bevy of tests on EW capabilities and concepts at the venue.

The Army has sought to rebuild much of its electronic warfare prowess after divesting much of it following the Cold War. The service has been on a decade-plus journey to reinvigorate the enterprise and build out an arsenal of capabilities.

“This year’s Project Convergence helped us develop a more nuanced understanding of the spectrum, which will enable kinetic and nonkinetic targeting, situational awareness, and enhance our commanders’ decision-making abilities on future battlefields,” Mike Monteleone, director of the all-domain sensing cross-functional team, stated in the news release. “The ability to understand enemy movements, and prevent the enemy from understanding our own movements, is crucial for maintaining a lethal advantage.”