Regaining the Spectrum Offensive

U.S. electromagnetic warfare capabilities and concepts evolved in the three decades since the Cold War to support defensive missions against relatively unsophisticated threats. The bulk of DoD electromagnetic attack (EA) investment went to improved versions of self-defense systems such as the F-15 EPAWSS, SLQ-32 SEWIP, and Next Generation Jammer while electromagnetic protection (EP) focused on hardening radars and communications against exploitation or disruption. But a shift is underway today, prompted largely by the emergence of a peer competitor in China. As part of a reimagined approach to EP the US military is developing a new generation of passive and low probability of detection/intercept sensors and communication systems. And although most funding still goes to EA systems that protect platforms, the DoD is fielding a wide variety of small, unmanned vehicles designed to take the electromagnetic fight to the enemy by disrupting and deceiving opponents’ sensors and communications.

The protracted and halting movement of the Pentagon toward new approaches to EP and EA could enable a revolution in military affairs toward decision-making and the central competition rather than the speed and scale of precision attacks. The Joint Warfighting Concept’s approach of expanded maneuver and the JADC2 strategy’s pursuit of a more interoperable force suggest their goal is a more disaggregated US military with more ways to compose and generate effects. The programs and use cases associated with the DoD’s emerging EA and EP capabilities would support these new decision-centric concepts by exploiting disaggregation to adopt a model where EP is achieved by avoiding detection and EA is executed by smaller, more attritable units.

This webinar will address the trends in warfare driving the DoD’s new operational concepts, how emerging approaches to EA, electromagnetic support, and EP enable these concepts, and the implications for EMSO capability development.