Hard on the heels of the
previous post comes more good news about Army training (1). They’re now beginning to exercise in
electromagnetically challenged and degraded environments. This has long been one of ComNavOps’ beliefs,
that we need to exercise in seriously electromagnetically challenged
environments because that’s what we’ll fight in. Failure to do so has led to our sailors and
soldiers losing basic skills like navigation and map reading and an
overdependence on networking and data linking to provide our intelligence and
surveillance. Our individual units have
forgotten how to generate their own information.
Here’s the problem in a
nutshell,
“After two decades of largely ignoring the danger,
the Army is seriously training for a scary
scenario: What if GPS, our satellite communications and our wireless networks
go down?
It’s hardly a hypothetical threat. Russian
electronic warfare units locate Ukrainian troops by their
transmissions and jam their radios so they can’t call for help, setting
them up for slaughter. American soldiers are much better trained and
equipped than Ukrainian ones, but they’re also much more dependent on wireless
devices.”
“We depend on networks for everything from
communications to guiding
precision weapons, to not shooting friendly units by accident, “to
not getting lost in the woods …”
Now, the Army is beginning to train for lost electronic aids. Training for an
electromagnetically challenged environment starts with the basics.
“So the Army is now deliberately disrupting its own
units during training. For example, when brigades go to the National Training Center
Training then goes on to top
end electromagnetic warfare (EW) threats.
“In the past, “we’ve done some training exercises
where there’s been GPS jamming; we’ve done exercises where there’s
radio-frequency jamming… but it’s very narrow, very limited.” By contrast, he
said, under Gen. Milley’s direction, the Army will “bring the full [EW] package
to the National Training Center
As the article discusses,
the Army is having to relearn lessons of old:
maps, compasses, hand drawn battle plans, tactical siting of HQs and
communications units, radio discipline to avoid triangulation, etc.
Outstanding Army! Once again, the Navy needs to learn from the
Army. The Navy is even more dependent on
electromagnetic aids then the Army is.
Every weapon the Navy has uses GPS guidance or guidance data links, the heart of the Navy’s
defensive plans relies on networks and data sharing for cooperative engagement,
UAVs are dependent on highly vulnerable comm. links, etc. The Navy needs to relearn how to fight in an
EW environment. The Navy needs to find
out which weapons simply won’t work in an EW environment. The Navy needs to break its addiction to and
dependence on electronic aids.
In a real war, there’s a lot
to said for a high explosive, dumb shell that requires no guidance and can’t be
jammed!
__________________________
(1)Breaking Defense, “Maps &
Jammers: Army Intensifies Training Vs. Russian-Style Jamming”,
Sydeny J. Freedberg Jr, 18-Mar-2016 ,
I was an acoustic sensor operator onboard p-3s in the Navy. While flying in a P-3B, we lost our computer/tactical display. The Tactical Coordinator (TACCO) used a map, paper and a stop watch for his tactical plot. Gotta improvise.
ReplyDeleteThere are many lesson from Ukraine:
ReplyDelete1) Russias landbased EW equipment is the most advanced in the world.
2) Tube artillery can still dominate the battlefield.
3) Soldiers are a lot more vulnerable sitting inside an armored vehicle, than taking cover in a ditch.
4) Field phones and landlines cannot be intercepted or jammed.
5) Achieving air supremacy is difficult, as it requires an effective air force. Denying airspace to your opponent is much easier, as it only requires a bunch of missiles.
6) GPS is embarrasingly easy to jam. As is the gsm-network. HF to UHF handhelds are harder to jam, but easy to triangulate.