Army evaluates several evolving electronic warfare concepts at Project Convergence

The Army tested a variety of evolving electronic warfare capabilities and concepts at its recent Project Convergence experiment in the California desert.

A venue for the Army to test emerging concepts along with other services, Project Convergence Capstone 5 served as a “critical test bed” for the service’s in-development electronic warfare capabilities, according to a spokesperson from Army Cyber Command. During the event, the Army sought to not only focus on rapid generation and deployment of effects in contested environments, but also streamline the process of target identification, develop countermeasures to adversary capabilities and deliver them across multiple electronic warfare systems at speeds required for large-scale combat operations.

The advanced modern state of electronic warfare 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.

The Army, along with the other services, has been preparing for large-scale combat operations of the future that take place over greater distances with sophisticated adversaries, a departure from the war on terrorism that was more regionally focused and fought against technologically inferior enemies.

As such, the Army and its counterparts have sought to rebuild much of their electronic warfare prowess they divested after the Cold War. The Army has been on a decade-plus journey to reinvigorate electronic warfare and build out an arsenal of capabilities.

While that effort has seen fits and starts, the Army is currently prioritizing a new EW architecture to allow for the rapid collection, dissemination and reprogramming of signals in the field at the speed of war.  

ARCYBER’s participation in Project Convergence consisted of several partner and subordinate organizations, such as the Army Cyber Technology Innovation Center Lab, where ARCYBER tests new technologies; the 11th Cyber Battalion, which conducts tactical, on-the-ground cyber operations (mostly through radio-frequency effects), electronic warfare and information operations; the Army Cyber Center of Excellence; the Army Reprogramming Analysis Team; Project Manager Electronic Warfare and Cyber; Project Manager Cyber and Space; the Army Cyber Institute; the C5ISR Center’s Research and Technology Integration Directorate; and the All-Domain Sensing Cross-Functional Team.

The experiment primarily focused on electromagnetic support activities, like sensing the environment to detect and intercept signals, specifically by refining data flows, processes and standards for EW systems. It sought to improve electromagnetic support characterization through detector modifications.

Forces used the Terrestrial Layer System Manpack, the first official program in decades to provide a dismounted electronic attack capability that soldiers can use to conduct direction finding with limited jamming on-the-move, as well as a commercial system and modified commercial software-defined radios.

While the primary focus was on electromagnetic support, Project Convergence aimed to refine processes and standards that support the other main EW domains: electronic attack, primarily through jamming, and electronic protection efforts aimed at safeguarding against jamming. Units also tested the process of requesting, developing, and deploying electronic attack payloads, achieving a turnaround time of less than 24 hours.

Central to the experimentation and continued building out of EW capabilities is the development and implementation of what the Army calls modular mission payloads and a responsive EW reprogramming ecosystem. These modular mission payloads are a different approach to capabilities, moving from platform-centric to payload-centric, meaning effects can be employed over multiple platforms with little to no integration by operators.

The ecosystem will provide rapid generation and deployment of modular mission payloads across several platforms for precise and timely non-kinetic effects, according to the ARCYBER spokesperson.

Enhancing the responsiveness of electromagnetic spectrum systems and using modular mission payloads, the Army seeks to achieve rapid effects generation and delivery at scale, which will significantly improve its ability to dominate the electromagnetic spectrum and achieve operational objectives in dynamic environments, they added.

ARCYBER also sought to demonstrate the end-to-end process of developing and deploying electronic warfare effects from a central repository to units at the frontlines using a common framework to interface with multiple EW systems to deliver targeted electronic fires.

The Army also sought to further test out processes within its Radio Frequency Data Pilot, an effort to determine what it needs to be able to rapidly reprogram systems on the battlefield.

The RF Data Pilot team successfully demonstrated the ability to rapidly sense EW targets on the battlefield, share the data with the Army Warfighting Mission Area System, and pass the information to the Rapid Effects Generation Enterprise.

The Rapid Effects Generation Enterprise developed a new modular technique in a few days that was loaded on multiple EW systems, equipping them with a new capability to automatically characterize and classify an anomalous signal they didn’t possess previously.

When a signal is discovered that isn’t in a unit’s library of known capabilities, it previously could take several months to process and classify it to develop a countermeasure. The U.S. military is seeking a reprogramming enterprise that can do that work in hours and, some cases, at the tip of the spear on the battlefield as opposed to sending the signal back to a static, remote location.

“The RF Data Pilot program has provided valuable insights and data, further solidifying the direction of our non-kinetic effects development. We’ve gained a clearer understanding of the necessary data standards and identified potential policy recommendations to enhance these capabilities,” Lt. Gen. Maria Barrett, commander of Army Cyber Command, said in a statement. “This progress allows us to move forward with confidence and refine our approach to achieving the speed and scale required for [large scale combat operations]. The pilot program’s findings affirm our trajectory and provide a strong foundation for continued development and implementation.”

The experimentation at Project Convergence demonstrating the speed of integration and technique generation is a significant milestone in the Army’s ability to build greater situational awareness in the electromagnetic spectrum, according to the spokesperson.

Following the event over the next several months, the pilot team will continue to build on the successes demonstrated.

The Army will also continue refining the electronic warfare reprogramming ecosystem and integrating the modular mission payload framework.

Cyber Quest 25 will be the next big opportunity for industry to demonstrate capabilities to rapidly assess, develop, and deliver EW effects to multiple systems in a realistic operational environment.