Over 700 Space Force personnel stationed at multiple military bases are participating in the exercise, where guardians will test and train on space-based capabilities to conduct orbital warfare, electromagnetic warfare, cyber warfare and more. During the event, the service will present threat-informed scenarios simulating a fight with an adversary and allowing for troops to use operational military satellites — as well as commercial assets — to counter them.

“As the scenario increases in challenges and complexity, this gives our blue forces a thinking adversary to spar against,” Lt. Col. Shawn Green, commander of the Space Force’s 527th Space Aggressor Squadron, said Tuesday during a briefing with reporters. “Our goal is to create a relevant, realistic, informed threat replication for blue to fight through so that we can increase the probability of success in war.”

Resolute Space 2025 is part of the Department of the Air Force’s massive exercise known as Resolute Force Pacific (REFORPAC), intended to demonstrate the ability of both the Air and Space Forces to rapidly deploy against adversaries in the Indo-Pacific. It is a central piece of the DAF’s new Department Level Exercise (DLE) series that includes other major Air Force training events, such as Mobility Guardian and Bamboo Eagle, happening concurrently.

The Space Force’s exercise began July 8, and will feature guardians stationed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, as well as Peterson, Buckley and Shriever Space Force Bases, according to the service. Other personnel stationed throughout the Indo-Pacific will also participate in Resolute Space 2025, which is slated to wrap up in early August.

To simulate enemy capabilities and attacks, Green said the Space Force created a mission planning cell that will synchronize fires across space-based orbital, cyber and electromagnetic warfare — presenting various moves and countermoves that guardians will have to fight through.

Resolute Space 2025 will also integrate with elements of the REFORPAC exercise, which aims to ensure the Space Force can effectively fight alongside the Air Force in the future.

“We are working to fuse our different mission areas with the time-phased scheme of maneuver as part of the larger scenario,” Green said. “We’re doing that by providing space electromagnetic warfare, orbital warfare [and] cyber warfare. And we’re using those types of activities to fuse into this large, globally integrated exercise for live, virtual, synthetic scenarios so that our training is realistic, relevant and challenging.”

Col. Jay Steingold, Resolute Space director, told reporters that the exercise also spans across other key mission areas — including space domain awareness; satellite communication; positioning, navigation and timing (PNT); intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR); missile warning; command and control; and military-commercial integration.

Personnel will be able to use on-orbit space assets designed for training guardians, as well as satellites owned by commercial partners during the exercise, Steingold added.

“We have satellites that we are able to utilize to provide training for our U.S. Space Force guardians, whether that be an understanding of how they quote-unquote fly, or in terms of payload capacities and capabilities and general training on orbit,” he said. “We’re certainly leveraging our commercial partners and their capabilities — not only from their developmental standpoint, but also what they bring to bear in terms of cost savings.”

While the Space Force has held exercises in the past, those events were largely focused on individual mission areas and not at the scale of Resolute Space. Steingold said that while large-scale exercises are costly and time-consuming to plan and execute, participating in Resolute Space 2025 is imperative to improving the service’s capabilities, training and overall integration with the joint force and international allies.

“This is the opportunity to really dig in and find out if we have any weaknesses whatsoever, so we can fill them,” he said. “Whether it’s capabilities that our [Operational Test and Training Infrastructure] partners can bring from a training environments perspective, to actual warfighting capabilities that we need to take us further into the future to ensure the safety and security of the space domain.”

The post Space Force training for on-orbit warfare in inaugural Resolute Space exercise appeared first on DefenseScoop.

Meadowlands is a mobile, ground-based offensive counterspace system that uses radio signals to jam adversary satellite communications. Developed by prime contractor L3Harris, the capability provides a significant upgrade to the Space Force’s current platform — the Counter Communications System (CCS) — by adding a software-defined architecture, drastically reducing weapon size and integrating automation.

L3Harris formally passed system verification review for Meadowlands in April. The Space Force then announced that Meadowlands received fielding approval on May 2 to begin training guardians on the system, with next steps being “upgrading the operating system to fulfill remote operations capabilities and multi-system management in the near future,” according to Space Operations Command.

The contractor has already delivered the first two Meadowlands units to the Space Force and the system is now going through government testing, Erik Ballard, L3Harris’s general manager for space antennas, surveillance systems, space and airborne systems, told DefenseScoop in a recent interview. The milestone was completed about six months ahead of schedule, and the company is now on track to deliver even more units through 2025, he added.

“It is more than just a block upgrade, it’s a step-change in capability,” Ballard said.

The first iteration of CCS became operational in 2004 and has received incremental upgrades over the years. L3Harris completed the final upgrade, known as 10.2, in March 2020 after the company received a development contract in 2019 to deliver five Meadowlands systems to the Space Force by December 2025.

L3Harris also received a production contract for Meadowlands in 2021 that includes over 20 additional units, the first of which is expected to be delivered this year, Ballard noted.

“The software-defined architecture … allows us to upgrade it quickly with the changing threat environment much more affordably and much faster,” he said. “I also think that the footprint size — the analogy I like to use … is, for [CCS 10.2], all your equipment fit in a bus and you hooked up an antenna behind it. Now, all that equipment fits in your SUV.”

Meadowlands also adds a significant amount of automation and remote command-and-control capabilities, meaning that a single guardian can do tasks that would have previously required multiple people. 

Col. Bryon McClain, program executive for space domain awareness and combat power at Space System Command, told reporters in April that the automation capabilities of Meadowlands will give the service a significant amount of flexibility.

“Having a system that we can reduce the number of people that are physically sitting by the antenna — turning knobs and pushing buttons — the farther we can separate that,” McClain said during a media roundtable at Space Symposium. “It gives us the ability to centralize how we do business.”

After years of keeping its offensive and defensive counterspace capabilities behind closed doors, the Space Force has recently entered a new era of openly talking about its plans to weaponize the domain against adversaries. In April, the service published a new warfighting framework that outlines three mission areas — orbital, electromagnetic and cyberspace warfare — for counterspace operations.

As the Space Force has conducted operational training on Meadowlands with guardians, Ballard said the process has been “night and day” compared to previous CCS platforms. L3Harris partnered with the Space Force early in the system’s development to ensure military personnel could easily and quickly train on the new Meadowlands platforms, he said.

“Over the last couple of months as we’ve went through government testing, [the training aspect] has really resonated with the users,” Ballard said. “That’s something that’s been in the process for a number of years. And now to hear it in feedback from users — we did the right thing there by starting that earlier.”

The post Space Force receives first two units of Meadowlands offensive satellite jammer appeared first on DefenseScoop.

The effort was part of the Cyber Quest event held in July at Fort Eisenhower, Georgia. Cyber Quest is an experimentation venue where the Army seeks to test emerging technologies on either existing or desired capabilities brought by contractors that respond to specific problem statements from the service in order to help inform future requirements and concepts.

Among the 19 technologies across a broad range of stakeholders tested at this year’s gathering, officials sought to apply algorithms to process and identify so-called signals of interest at the tactical edge.

More so than previous conflicts, such tools will be imperative in future fights where sophisticated adversaries will possess advanced electromagnetic spectrum capabilities designed to locate U.S. forces and jam their communications. In order to thwart these systems, the American military must have countermeasures against them.

However, if soldiers encounter a signal not previously labeled or in their library, countermeasures can’t be developed. During the Cold War, it could take weeks to months between the time a signal of interest was detected, sent back to a lab, analyzed, countermeasure developed and countermeasure delivered to the field.

On the modern battlefield, that likely won’t be sufficient to win.

“That’s key as we move further forward to both reducing the manpower that we need at the edge, but also getting somewhere close to that machine speed processing that is an end goal,” Maj. James Harryman, Cyber Quest lead exercise planner and a U.K. exchange officer at the U.S. Army’s Cyber Center of Excellence, said in a July interview.

Software company DataShapes AI participated at Cyber Quest, putting their algorithms and sensors to the test.

“We’re generating unique waveforms and seeing what kind of categorization it gives us. We’re seeing a lot of success out there and the maturity of some of these ML algorithms,” Col. Gary Brock, capability manager for electronic warfare, who is responsible for developing requirements for new EW systems, said in an interview.

Logan Selby, president and CEO of DataShapes AI, said the company deployed its software to edge devices that could be scattered throughout the battlefield and do real-time detection and classification of signals.

“There’s a signal here in the spectrum — and then [we need to figure out] what is it? We were able to detect them in real time at those edge devices and then classify them on the edge devices as well … We can actually learn signals in real time on the edge devices as well,” he said, noting they demonstrated this at Cyber Quest.

Selby said they’re seeking to enhance kill chains and increase the speed of decision-making for commanders.

“With the speed of battle as it is today and the stuff constantly changing, signals constantly changing the environment, us empowering that soldier — whether they’re a classically trained electronic warfare specialist, or they’re a fueler or a truck driver or somebody that is not classically trained — our tool is extremely intuitive, where it’s allowing them to learn these signals in real time,” he said.

The experimentation at Cyber Quest and desire to test these types of classification tools fits in line with the Army’s larger electronic warfare data pilot to determine what the service needs to be able to rapidly reprogram systems on the battlefield.

Brock said this experimentation ties into the pilot and will soon lead into a Maneuver Fires Integration Experiment at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

He also noted that as users learn more about AI and ML capabilities related to signal classification, that knowledge will filter back to product managers overseeing ongoing development of EW materiel and requests for information from industry under programs of record.

“Unique to that is as we look at the data structures required to train those algorithms on the fly, we’re feeding that over to the [Army Cyber Command] data pilot team so that we’re working on those,” Brock said.

The post Army tests algorithms for classifying new signals for first time at annual experiment appeared first on DefenseScoop.

Over the last five months, the Space Force has been experimenting with two Integrated Mission Deltas: one focused on positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) and a second on electromagnetic warfare (EW). The model brings a single mission area’s personnel, training elements and sustainment function under one commander while also incorporating additional cybersecurity and intelligence professionals.

When Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman announced the new pilot units in September, he explained the goal was to improve the readiness of the Space Force in selected mission areas. Now the service is looking at how to replicate the model with other parts of the force, SpOC Chief Lt. Gen. David Miller said Tuesday during his first call with reporters since taking the helm of the field command in January.

“I will tell you that my recommendations are in. We are having conversations about that with the service chief. He will decide what are the next candidates to do that,” Miller said. “Many of you know me, I’m pretty aggressive. You can imagine that my recommendations are pretty aggressive. We’re gonna go with whatever the service chief and [the Secretary of the Air Force] decide, and I think you’ll hear something about that in the coming weeks.”

Currently, the Space Force allocates operations and training functions to various SpOC deltas — essentially the service’s version of numbered units and commands — while sustainment and acquisition responsibilities are held by Space Systems Command (SSC). Under the IMD model, a SpOC delta commander gains acquisition professionals responsible for sustainment who will also collaborate with their counterparts at SSC — which is still the deciding authority on acquiring new capabilities.

While Miller did not go into much detail about his recommendations, he did outline some successes the Space Force has seen with the IMDs so far that have influenced his guidance.

For example, both the PNT and EW integrated deltas have been able to finish testing milestones at an “unprecedented rate by taking almost 10 to 15 percent of the total time that was anticipated to accomplish the milestones,” he said.

There have also been improvements in how the Space Force fields capabilities to U.S. Space Command, as well as in the service’s ability to rapidly fix, repair or address issues with space systems “by virtue of a commander having authority over all the sustainment and maintenance that previously were split between two commands,” he added.

Despite the early wins, Miller emphasized that the IMD construct isn’t one that can be applied across the Space Force. Rather, the model is best for mission areas that require forces to be presented to Spacecom, he explained.

“We have to centralize authority over both the manpower, the weapons system and the sustainment and training of those guardians and airmen to get the job done,” he said. “That’s just a core requirement when we’re presenting combat power to a combatant command, so I think it’s absolutely necessary in those cases.”

In others where a delta provides services specific to the Space Force or has a more tailored mission, it wouldn’t be necessary to transition those to an IMD model, Miller said.

“I just don’t think that in every case and in every situation you’ll see the … Integrated Mission Delta be a requirement,” he said. “Some of those deltas don’t need that. They still need to be part of Space Operations Command, they just don’t necessarily need to be integrating all those capabilities under one single commander.”

Updated on March 4, 2024 at 5:20 PM: This story has been updated to clarify sustainment and acquisition roles under the IMD model.

The post Space Force looking to scale ‘integrated’ unit structure to other missions appeared first on DefenseScoop.

The Pentagon plans to award up to $280 million next year for Microelectronics Commons projects, according to a press release. Funding for the program supports six technology areas: secure edge and Internet of Things computing; 5G and 6G; AI hardware; quantum; electromagnetic warfare; and “leap-ahead” commercial technologies.

“The U.S. military has an ever-increasing need for innovation in the microelectronics that underpin many of our modern weapon systems, including communications equipment, planes, tanks, long-range munitions, and sensors. This Call for Proposals is the next step in our effort to bridge the valley of death from ‘lab-to-fab,’” Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering David Honey said in a statement.

The term “valley of death,” in defense acquisition parlance, refers to challenges that are often encountered in transitioning promising technologies from research and development into production.

“Today, microelectronics designs that are proven within U.S. universities and businesses of all sizes frequently do not enter large-scale production because the transition from laboratory to fabrication is notoriously difficult; a high technology readiness does not mean high manufacturability. The Commons is focused on easing this transition for microelectronics that are essential for our national security,” according to the release. “The Commons aims to ensure that the U.S. defense industrial base will have access to a robust pipeline of world-leading microelectronics produced in U.S. foundries, and the ability to shape that pipeline to address the future demands of our warfighters.”

The initiative is supported by eight innovation hubs that were announced in September, which are intended to help scale production. They include the Northeast Regional Defense Tech Hub in New York; Southwest Advanced Prototyping Hub in Arizona; Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide-bandgap Semiconductors Hub in North Carolina; Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons Hub in Indiana; Midwest Microelectronics Consortium Hub in Ohio; California Defense Ready Electronics and Microdevices Superhub; California-Pacific-Northwest Artificial Intelligence
Hardware Hub; and Northeast Microelectronics Coalition Hub in New England.

More than 380 organizations are part of the various hubs, including more than 100 academic institutions, according to the Pentagon.

Respondents to the solicitation must be members of the National Security Technology Accelerator and a Microelectronics Commons hub, according to the call for proposals.

The DOD plans to award prototype other transaction agreements for selected projects, which may lead to follow-on awards.

“Upon successful completion of this prototype effort, the Government anticipates that a follow-on production effort may be awarded via either contract or transaction, without the use of competitive procedures,” according to the solicitation.

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division is the contracting activity.

Responses are due Feb. 28, 2024. The Pentagon anticipates issuing awards in the third quarter of fiscal 2024.

The post DOD looking to award another $280M for microelectronics projects appeared first on DefenseScoop.

Known as the Black Skies exercise, the live simulation training initiative is aimed at developing Space Force guardians’ skills in tactical space electromagnetic warfare operations. Black Skies is one of three iterations in the Skies series hosted by Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM); its others are Red Skies, focusing on “orbital warfare,” and Blue Skies, which trains guardians in cyber warfare.

The latest training event, which was held in late September, focused largely on defending against simulated threats to drones, which were run by the Air Force 26th Weapons Squadron’s Remotely Piloted Aircraft Electronic Combat Officer Course (RECOC), according to a Space Force press release. 

At the same time, the Space Force looped in the Army for one of its Skies exercises for the first time. During the training, the Army’s 1st Space Brigade participated by “processing multi-intelligence data from a diverse array of sensors,” highlighting cross-service collaboration and operational planning, the release stated.  

Like in past Black Skies exercises, September’s event integrated “live-fire” training where guardians transmitted signals from Earth to real satellites in orbit. This time, the Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC) was able to conduct command and control of different distributed units from multiple services, while also honing joint operational requirements, it added.

“Black Skies has been a massive success in training our forces and testing warfighting readiness,” Lt. Col. Scott Nakatani, 392nd Combat Training Squadron commander, said in a statement. “The planning and execution team is small, but extremely talented and we will continue to evolve the delivery of realistic combat training to space warfighters.” 

Using real-world systems are crucial for space exercises, “as they provide a realistic training environment, allowing participants to better prepare for actual combat by engaging with real-world, operational space systems,” the release noted. Guardians were also able to practice the same procedures in a closed-loop environment, which does not use physical space systems.

Overall, the third Black Skies event was STARCOM’s largest thus far and included over 170 personnel from various units in the Space Force, Air Force and Army. 

Hosting more frequent Skies exercises has been a key priority for Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman. He told DefenseScoop in April that the current training tempo is “insufficient,” and that the nascent service is moving as quickly as it can to increase the number of exercises each year.

“You’re not going to have the throughput that really gets the number of guardians through those training exercises that I think is required to really advance the training and the skills of the broader set of guardians that we need,” Saltzman said during a media roundtable at the annual Space Symposium.

A Space Force release noted that focus is now shifting towards the upcoming Concept Development Conference, hosted by the service’s 392nd Combat Training Squadron, that will outline exercises to be held in fiscal 2024. 

The post Space Force’s latest ‘Black Skies’ training event focused on drone threats, joint operations appeared first on DefenseScoop.

The detachments are part of the 950^th Spectrum Warfare Group, which sits beneath the 350^th Spectrum Warfare Wing. This first-of-its-kind wing, created in 2021, is focused on three missions: rapid reprogramming, target and waveform development, and assessment of Air Force EW capabilities.

The 950^th — which will be based at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia — will enhance the Air Force electronic warfare assessment programs, according to a spokesperson. It will be responsible for the Combat Shield mission, the primary electronic warfare assessment team for the Air Force. That Combat Shield mission is currently assigned to the 87^th Electronic Warfare Squadron.

“They’re going to be focused on everything from platform-specific readiness to large-force exercise employment and assessment, getting into [tactics, techniques and procedures] development, and write down some of these things that will be in the future,” Col. Joshua Koslov, commander of the 350^th, said of the group, in a podcast hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

The Air Force — along with much of the joint force — had taken its eye off the ball within the electromagnetic spectrum for years. Now, there is greater focus on its importance and emphasis on capabilities that can be critical to gaining an advantage against adversaries.

Regarding assessments, the four functions the group will perform include developing comprehensive EW assessment methodologies to assess combat readiness and effectiveness of Air Force, joint and coalition systems; executing real time or near-real time large force exercise live-flight and virtual assessments across all global combatant commands and ensure assessment of electromagnetic spectrum operations employment; executing EW effectiveness assessments for aircraft and applicable EW systems onboard; and developing and verifying the combined effectiveness of integrated electromagnetic spectrum operation across multi-mission design series Air Force packages and multi-domain force packages, according to the spokesperson.

Officials note that the group will have a military-wide impact by improving readiness and effectiveness, developing tactics and procedures for the joint force, and informing operation plan development and sustainment efforts that provide critical insights to combatant commanders.

“The 950th Spectrum Warfare Group will provide the DOD the capability to verify EW readiness through assessment for all aircraft types as well as the cumulative effectiveness of integrated strike packages. This effort benefits combatant commander, [Air Force major commands], warfighters and better informs the acquisition enterprise for future decision-making,” the spokesperson said. “The 950th Spectrum Warfare Group aims to bring a critical factor of assessment to the EW enterprise that will directly result in the readiness of our fleet’s EW capabilities, assuring our warfighters and partners … and deterring our adversaries.”

Updated on Oct. 5, 2023 at 2:30 PM: This story has been updated to reflect that the Air Force is activating two detachments. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Air Force is activating two squadrons.

The post Air Force to activate two electronic warfare assessment detachments this month appeared first on DefenseScoop.

Detachment 1, also known as Det 1, is part of the 350th Spectrum Warfare Group, and Lt. Col. Luke Marron has been tapped to command the new unit, according to an Aug. 28 Air Force release.

The wing, a first of its kind in the Air Force, was activated in 2021 to enable, equip and optimize the fielding of electromagnetic spectrum capabilities, specializing in the reprogramming of systems. The 350th Spectrum Warfare Group reprograms assets across the service, wing commander Col. Joshua Koslov said during an event in April.

“Over 70 platforms, 27 countries up to date. And just to put it in perspective for you, we do every single F-35, we reprogram every single F-35 in the world. Allies, friends, partners, et cetera,” he said at the time. “[W]e run from 5th gen, or new capability, all the way down to things that have been in the Air Force inventory for a long time.”

In the cat-and-mouse game of electronic warfare and electromagnetic spectrum operations — where adversaries seek to deny access to the spectrum for communications or navigation through jamming — agility and speed are paramount. Once a signal is detected, forces must work to reprogram systems 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.

Modern forces are trying to use more digital means to reprogram systems in as near real-time as possible to stay ahead of threats.

Koslov has said the wing has three specific missions: rapid reprogramming, target and waveform development, and assessment of Air Force EW capabilities.

Mission data files are on-board data systems of an aircraft compiling information from the surrounding environment They’ve been described as “the brains of the airplane.”

The Air Fore said reprogramming mission data files provides airmen the most up-to-date data and allows them to sense, identify, locate and counter threats to ultimately increase survivability and lethality.   

According to the release, the activation of Detachment 1 realigned the missions of the 16^th Electronic Warfare Squadron — formerly solely focused on bomber mission data files — and the 36^th Electronic Warfare Squadron, which was previously solely focused on Air Combat Command’s fighter platform reprogramming squadron.

Det 1’s mission will be to enhance survivability in the electromagnetic spectrum supporting operational sustainment for mission specific software for jamming, detection and suppression systems, the Air Force said. It will also provide operational, technical and maintenance expertise of electronic warfare with 24-hour contingency reprograming and exploitations tests of foreign threat systems supporting developmental and operational tests of new and modified EW systems.

“The need for a new unit has always been apparent,” Col. Robert Cocke, 350th Spectrum Warfare Group commander, said in a statement. “We know the mission requirements are going to expand in the next couple of years and we are building an organization to enable us to receive that additional mission and execute it.”

The post Air Force spectrum wing activates new unit focused on reprogramming mission data files appeared first on DefenseScoop.

Modern software systems turn the old Cold War paradigm — where signals were collected, brought back to laboratories for analysis and countermeasures devised — on its head.

“I think the name of the game is when we’re looking at electromagnetic warfare capability in the future, it needs to be software driven, artificial intelligence, machine learning, so that we have the ability to respond in a very fast, quick, in a lethal and resilient manner,” Brig. Gen. Tad Clark, director of electromagnetic spectrum superiority for the Air Force, said Wednesday during the C4ISRNET Conference. “Those types of emerging technologies are the things that we’ve identified that we’d like to focus in on.”

One example the U.S. military has been looking at is how SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation that provides internet coverage is being used in Ukraine.

Despite Russian attempts to jam it, the following day, Starlink reported adding new lines of code that rendered the jamming ineffective, Dave Tremper, director of electromagnetic warfare within the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment’s platforms and weapons portfolio management office, said at the conference.

“From that EW technologist perspective, that is fantastic and that paradigm and how they did that is eye watering,” Tremper said. “When we compare that to the kind of the latency of our ability to get capability out there, how long it takes us to make capability upgrades, the process we have to go through to do the analysis of what happened, what’s the appropriate way to fix it, how do we then acquire the system, how do we get the contract in place — we’re talking about a significant timeline to make those types of corrections.”

In the way Starlink upgraded its systems in the face of a threat, the military needs to have that same agility to change its electromagnetic posture without losing capability, he said, stressing the importance of electromagnetic spectrum survivability in all systems.

To some degree, Pentagon officials have described a change in mindset that’s needed to think about this paradigm shift.

The Air Force’s top officer, Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr., has previously said that electronic assets can be cost effective given their repeatable processes.

“I really believe now as we go more and more of a force that is in a world that is more software defined, there is the capability capacity to move much faster in these areas,” he told reporters in March. “From my experience, it would take us some time — if we saw a new threat — to modify all of our systems. With software now we can do this much faster.”

Clark pointed to the Air Force’s Compass Call as an example of a software platform, not an aircraft per se.

“What people think of Compass Call, with that airborne electromagnetic attack platform, they often think of the physical platform that capability is posted on, the C-130,” he said. “As we look to the future, we’re looking to put that on an aircraft that can fly higher and faster. In fact, it’s being built right now, the EC-37 Bravo. But more important there are capabilities on that platform that are all software driven.”

In the last year, the Air Force has also created the 350^th Spectrum Warfare Wing, designed to enable, equip and optimize the fielding of electromagnetic spectrum capabilities. Clark said the organization also seeks to assess waveforms, ensure systems can identify waveforms correctly, and are looking down the road at advanced capabilities such as cognitive electromagnetic warfare to respond to unknown waveforms in a timely manner.

The Army, for its part, has also begun to experiment with reprogramming capabilities at the edge. Dubbed Starblazor, the project sought to figure out how to understand and reprogram against signals of interest at the tactical edge once discovered.

More broadly, the U.S. is also taking lessons from Russian use of electromagnetic spectrum operations in Ukraine as it ponders what investments need to be made.

“We’re learning a lot about what Russia has been investing their money in, the sophistication of their equipment, the reliability of their equipment and their soldiers and military members, personnel with their ability to execute that mission in a synchronized fashion,” Clark said. “I think it gives us some insight of where certain countries are, where we are, where we need to be, where we want to be. And that’s certainly very helpful.”

The post US needs to harness software to be more adaptable in electromagnetic warfare appeared first on DefenseScoop.