The electronic warfare kit is part of the Tactical Electronic Warfare System-Infantry Brigade Combat Team, or TEWS-I, which was initially a quick-reaction capability built by General Dynamics, providing a smaller system designed for infantry vehicles. It was a prototype activity to serve as a risk reduction and requirements pathfinder for the Army’s program of record, the Terrestrial Layer System-Brigade Combat Team (TLS-BCT).

That system was designed as the first integrated signals intelligence, cyber and electronic warfare platform and as initially conceived, was to be mounted on Strykers and then Army Multi-Purpose Vehicle variant prototypes.

The service has now decided to split up the platform, separating the signals intelligence and electronic warfare capabilities and pursuing a new architecture for its EW suite. That leaves a gap in vehicle-borne systems given there is now a man-packable capability for direction finding and limited electronic attack, and a larger system in development for higher echelons.

The ISV integration, awarded in 2021, is the fourth generation of the TEWS-I program. The initiative creates a much more mobile platform-based electronic warfare capability.

The TEWS-I ISV technology is “a middleweight fighter in the electronic warfare space because it has the capability at distance to have an effect and be able to sense at a distance. It has a wide frequency range that it covers. It has an extensive peer-relevant set of signals that it handles,” Derek Merrill, chief engineer for tactical signals intelligence, electronic warfare and NetC2 at General Dynamics Mission Systems, said in an interview at the annual AUSA conference. “It has the capability to detect, identify, locate, report and attack targets … It also handles software-based signals integration from the government, so they can give us a signal [and] we integrate it very quickly onto the platform.”

The ISV can be sling-loaded or carried internally in a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, meaning it can move much faster on the battlefield and even island-hop in the Pacific — a key tenet to operating in that region where Stryker systems aren’t well-suited.

While the Army has stated that there won’t be any future production on TEWS-I given it was a quick-reaction capability, the system has been used to generate discussion on requirements for light and airborne forces for mobility.

It has primarily been used by units within XVIII Airborne Corps, with General Dynamics delivering them six systems. Officials have previously noted that the 82nd Airborne Division and the 101st Airborne Division said they wanted to take their ISVs and mount EW equipment on them given the island-hopping capacity it provides.  

The system was also used by 2nd Brigade, 101st at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson, Louisiana, this past summer as part of the first real test for the Army chief of staff’s keystone vision dubbed transforming-in-contact, that uses deployments and troop rotations to test new equipment that could allow units to be more responsive on a dynamic battlefield.

“Some of the soldiers were part of the design process. It wasn’t a surprise that it was highly, highly desired. They want more of the systems,” Merrill said.

Merrill noted that their electronic warfare kit — which is platform agnostic, meaning it can be mounted on several different infantry-type vehicles — has been able to coordinate and pass data to other Army staff functions such as fires. Specifically, he said XVIII Airborne Corps integrated it with its Project Maven system.

It was also able to coordinate fires.

“The vehicle itself has the ability to conduct electronic attack, but in many cases you’ll want to just coordinate with other fires functions. It can both inform the local units [that] ‘I’ve detected something that’s a threat to us,’ but it can also coordinate fires, for example, for a target,” he said, noting the importance of not always wanting to use jamming to affect a target. “The risk in a peer fight is that jamming also gives away your location. That’s the beauty of being on the vehicle, is because you can emit even long moving or emit and scoot. But that’s also a reason why you might not want to. You might choose to use other fires mechanisms.”

General Dynamics wants to start working to integrate the current manpack system program of record — made by Mastodon and leveraging systems deployed by U.S. Special Operations Command — so they can receive that data and help distribute it.

The goal for the TLS family was always for the vehicle-mounted and dismounted systems to work together in an integrated fashion.

“They bought the TLS-BCT backpack. That backpack is … more of a squad-level capability, shorter range, but effective. Our goal is to be fully interactive with that so that we can receive it, sensing, distribute that, correlate with it. Somebody with that backpack can jump on our vehicle and operate,” Merrill said.

He used a golf analogy to described the Manpack and the TEWS.

“The backpack is more like a putter. It’s a shorter-range capability. And we’re more like a driver. In your golf clubs you don’t want to go golfing with just one,” Merrill said.

General Dynamics is still having discussions with the Army to inform future requirements for capabilities. Merrill said TEWS is a production-ready system, but ultimately it’s up to the Army to decide the mix of systems and what they want to procure.

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The Mounted Assured Position, Navigation and Timing System (MAPS) program provides vehicles with the capability to operate in environments where access to GPS is jammed, spoofed, or otherwise denied. The first iteration, known as GEN I, was a quick reaction capability provided to U.S. forces for anti-jam antenna to ensure GPS accessibility. GEN II provides increased protection with sensor fusion algorithms and non-radio frequency sensors and was awarded to Collins Aerospace.

However, the MAPS program only covers a slice of the totality of Army vehicles.

“We’re aware that the vast majority of warfighters will not be covered by this program of record,” Aaron Mebust, director of GPS Source at General Dynamics Mission Systems, said in an interview.

General Dynamics was the main contractor for MAPS GEN I, which is how the company determined a capabiltiy gap existed.

“We have learned a lot through fielding to those brigade combat teams that were supported through the MAPS GEN I effort,” he said. “We’ve applied a lot of those lessons learned into our tiered product approach and what we have is a low cost, easily installed … family of products that we believe will very elegantly address the threats and the vulnerabilities.”

The tiered system General Dynamics has developed, which is designed to operate alongside the MAPS program, provides capabilities based on how intense the denied environments could be. The most extreme, dubbed Condition 3, involves a highly denied environment. In Condition 2, forces can expect some level of jamming, while Condition 1 involves novel jamming and interruption of GPS.

This threat picture is based upon Army threat data and it would be up to the Army to decide which units or vehicles will get what tier, Mebust said. However, he noted that a general rule of thumb is Condition 1 would be combat service and support vehicles — such as depot level maintenance and larger logistical elements; Condition 2 would be combat support — such as ammunition haulers, fuel haulers and ambulances; and Condition 3 would be ground combat systems.

“Even though 20,000 ground combat systems are going to get MAPS GEN I and MAPS GEN II, there are still a large number of those vehicles that will not get a MAPS solution as part of the program of record. This would be a very good fit for those platforms that are going to be exposed to that very high-energy environment in which GPS will likely be denied,” Mebust said. “We’ve created these systems to make it very easy for the Army to understand that these systems are, number one, available today, number two, are cost effective and number three, very easily defined what the performance criteria of these systems are so they can align the performance of the systems with the mission requirements of those platforms.”

No requirement currently exists for what General Dynamics is proposing, meaning the Army is not funding such an effort or putting it out for contractors to bid — so General Dynamics had to develop the technology on their own dime.

“We know, based off our experience with MAPS GEN I and looking at the MAPS GEN II program of record, we know the Army needs something like this,” Mebust said, noting that this is similar to how the GEN I program came into being.

General Dynamics recognized a need, invested its own money and eventually was funded to provide MAPS GEN I to the force.

“There is general consensus across the board that something needs to be done, that the program of record is insufficient for the entire force. Now, have requirements been written? No. Has money been POMed? No,” Mebust said, referencing the program objective memorandum that budgets out for five years. “But there is the general agreement that something needs to be done and we’re helping spur those discussions as to what does that look like, what are the performance requirements, what are the price points, what are the volumes that we’re talking about.”

General Dynamics has taken its systems out to a variety of government test events to demonstrate its capability and utility in the hopes the Army will soon develop a requirement to get it into the hands of soldiers.

“We have attended these government test sessions. They use threat-relevant emitters to put us in a contested and a challenged environment, and we produce an output with our systems and we share the results with those organizations in the Army so they can see what industry is capable of doing,” Mebust said. “We’ve been informing the Army helping to get to realize that yes, there are options, there are solutions out there, they are readily available, they are worthwhile, it is something that absolutely will increase the resilience of the force when it comes to threats to PNT.”

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The first such capability, the Terrestrial Layer System-Brigade Combat Team (TLS-BCT), is undergoing an important operational assessment that will be a critical step in moving out toward fielding.

TLS-BCT is the first brigade-organic integrated signals intelligence, electronic warfare and cyber platform that will first be mounted on Strykers.

“We’re looking at September of 2023 as the mark on the wall for operational assessment. This is really going to be a trailblazing event for us,” Maj. Derek Vanino, assistant program manager for Terrestrial Spectrum Warfare within Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors, told reporters during a visit to Aberdeen Proving Ground on Aug. 30. “We’re already working very closely with the test community, having advanced discussions about our operational assessment and what that means for this acquisition decisions that are going to emanate from that from the operational assessment.”

Lockheed Martin was awarded a $58.8 million contract in July to pave the way for TLS-BCT to be delivered to soldiers in 2023.  

The September operational assessment is a “steep runway” from the award last month in terms of getting everything aligned, officals said. They expect to do a configuration on an actual vehicle in the June timeframe before transporting them to the test location.

This test won’t be the only place the Army will collect data informing the final acquisition push, officials said, pointing to a variety of additional demonstrations of the technology between now and the end of 2023.

Officials explained the main platform for TLS-BCT currently is a Stryker, with plans to outfit other types of brigades such as armored and infantry. For armored units, the Army is targeting the forthcoming Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV), which is the replacement for the M113 family of vehicles, though that effort is contingent on the ongoing experimentation with the Strykers.

“The AMPV’s direction is really — a lot of that’s going to be contingent on the Stryker, because we’re really, as we view it, it’s a similar mission package,” Vanino said. “The performance of the — of the Stryker at [operational assessments] is going to be a key driver also of the AMPV and a key driver of the timelines associated with that as well. That’s really how I’d message that is Stryker’s going to be the trailblazer, then AMFV is going to follow.”

The Army does have funds to do some level of design and possible integration work for the AMPV in fiscal 2023.

Infantry units are a bit more tricky, Vanino said, with the Army waiting for further experimentation.

The priority for these units will be a manpack requirement for TLS-BCT that the Army is still developing. Soldiers will be able to take a backpack off the platform for dismounted operations.

“That’s an area where we’re continuing to look at what’s available in that form factor versus what the desirements are,” Vanino said. “With manpack, obviously, it has the potential to become quite cumbersome, get quite heavy and then you’re trading some of that mobility for capability. We’re rapidly scoping what the requirements of the end user are going to be with the manpack with an eye towards moving forward with a — with a solution for that.”

Officials noted that regarding the cyber capabilities, those are more suited for the 915th Cyber Warfare Battalion and its expeditionary cyber teams.

These teams will augment brigades and lower formations conducting tactical cyber and electronic warfare operations by using specialized equipment that can plug into what the brigade already has.

“All platforms are being developed to have the ability to do an RF delivery of cyber effects,” Willie Utroska, deputy program manager for Electronic Warfare & Cyber at PEO IEW&S, told reporters.  

Deep sensing

In addition to the brigade system, the Army is also working on the TLS-Echelons Above Brigade capability that will be designed for higher echelons that will need to monitor and sense the battlefield across greater distances than lower, more tactically focused echelons.

A new start in fiscal 2022, the TLS-EAB program recently awarded two companies — Lockheed and General Dynamics Mission Systems — to do design work, which includes software infrastructure and even vehicle design worth approximately $15 million over an 11-month period of performance.

For phase two, one of the companies will receive an award for prototype development.

Officials have said that this version of the program will likely be less integrated than its brigade counterpart.

“The TLS-Echelon Above Brigade system, which will provide similar capabilities for division, corps and multi-domain task forces will also be fielded at echelon, likely not as integrated based on the ranges and complexities, but nonetheless we need those capabilities at all echelons,” Lt. Gen. Laura Potter, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, G2, said at an event hosted by the Potomac Officers Club on Aug. 24.  

This is likely given that the ranges covered for these echelons makes operations like electronic attack more difficult.

“When you get up into the theater level and the corps level, those ranges, perhaps it’s not as important to have as much effect for electronic attack,” Maj. Joseph Fink, assistant program manager for Terrestrial Spectrum Warfare managing the program at PEO IEW&S, told reporters at Aberdeen. “Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. We’re going to figure it out in phase one. It’s an exploratory phase for us, we’re really going to use the industry partners and their creativity and existing proven capabilities that could be integrated [and] model understanding to find out what is realistic in the terrestrial” capability.

More power will be needed to affect those ranges from an electronic attack perspective, and that will be something officials will assess if they need to.

“That’s the power of prototyping. We haven’t determined what the platform is going to be and platforms can differ between echelons,” Utroska said. “We’ve decided what the BCT is going to — going to get, but from a division, corps and multi-domain task force, the division may be more mobile than the corps … The power of prototyping is determining that mix. Is it a vehicle and a trailer? Is it one vehicle, is it two vehicles? That’s what we’ll figure out in the next year of prototyping.”

While there are different signals of interest at these higher echelons and electronic attack might not be possible or even needed there, officials said all these systems will work together as a family.

“When you look at what we have to get the threat, not one system can do it all. You have to combine techniques, a combined system. An example would be using the TLS-EAB in conjunction with an MFEW-Air Large,” Utroska told reporters during a separate trip to Aberdeen Proving Ground in August, citing the Army’s forthcoming aerial jamming pod.

Resourcing for these Terrestrial Layer Systems will come from electronic warfare platoons within brigades and electronic warfare companies at the division and corps level the Army is in the midst of building.  

Currently, the Army has stood up 15 electronic warfare platoons at the brigade level with 16 additional platoons remaining until full implementation by 2027, according to a spokesperson from the Cyber Center of Excellence. The EW companies at the corps and division level will be built in 2023 with corps completing by 2027 and divisions by 2029.

Additionally, the Army has completed implementation of five Special Forces Group electronic warfare platoons and a Ranger Regiment cyber and electromagnetic activities company.

Officials said prototyping and experimenting will help determine the final force structure for these.

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The contract includes a base amount of more than $162.9 million and more than $161.5 million in options.

Seven proposals were submitted by industry and evaluated by SDA for this latest competition.

“It’s worth noting that this O&I contract is among the first of SDA Tranche 1 award announcements — but it will not be the last,” an SDA official told reporters on Thursday on condition of anonymity. “SDA has put forth several major competition opportunities over the last year and the team remains hard at work selecting performers based on all the inputs received and expected.”

SDA’s envisioned National Defense Space Architecture encompasses a layered approach with multiple tranches of deployments. Eventually, it is expected to feature hundreds of satellites that will monitor targets like missiles and hypersonic vehicles, provide position, navigation and timing for military personnel in GPS-denied environments, and communicate with ground stations and other spacecraft.

“Every tranche can potentially have different satellite vendor providers. And so what we have done in our strategy is to build out a ground segment that incorporates open-architecture concepts, and develops interfaces that can be communicated and standardized so that the integration with all the different vendors as they come on board can feed into the overarching ground networking enterprise,” the SDA official noted.

The scope of this newly announced contract award involves producing a common ground architecture that integrates space- and ground-based segments from a number of vendors in various configurations and enables mission operations mesh networking control.

“The O&I contract really is the most critical element of Tranche 1, and it carries the highest risk for the overall Tranche 1 successful performance,” the official said.

As the O&I prime contractor, General Dynamics selected Iridium Communications as “a major teammate” in this project, the official confirmed. Other partners involved include KSAT, Emergent and Raytheon. 

Development work will be performed at various contractor facilities and then the overall operation will unfold at SDA networking centers located at Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, and Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. The O&I contractor will build out one operation center at each of those two facilities — and also establish multiple new ground stations, or data entry points.

While SDA typically acquires its satellites under fixed-price contracts, it opted for the O&I agreement with General Dynamics to be cost-plus, the official noted. 

“We decided that with the level of risk and the amount of development that needs to happen in order to build the ground architecture, there is a certain amount of risk that we do need to accept from the government perspective and allow for the development to take its course,” the official said.

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