By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.
CAPITOL HILL: The Army has a new, two-pronged strategy for Signals Intelligence, its top intelligence official said at a recent forum here. First, SIGINT forces must proceed their post-9/11 development from a secretive, insular priesthood to a hands-on helper for frontline troops. At the same time, SIGINT must scale upwardly the “precision” techniques developed to rails insurgents‘ in addition to terrorists‘ transmissions so it tin tackle much bigger in addition to more sophisticated adversaries similar Russia in addition to China. Instead of pinpointing terrorist leaders for drone strikes or commando raids, SIGINT may survive finding electronic weak points inwards enemy networks that U.S. cyber in addition to electronic warfare teams tin so hack or jam. There is a foundation of success to create on, Army leaders told the Capitol Hill forum, which was organized yesteryear the Association of Old Crows, the leading professional person association for electronic warfare. Intelligence inwards full general in addition to SIGINT inwards particular, they said, receive got gotten improve integrated with other Army branches since 9/11 — in addition to peculiarly since 2016.
“It has been a remarkable 2 years,” said Brig. Gen. Jennifer Buckner. Formerly deputy commander of Joint Task Force ARES, which led Cyber Command operations against ISIS, she is at nowadays cyber director inwards Section G-3/5/7 of the Army’s Pentagon staff. Increasingly unopen cooperation betwixt intelligence analysts in addition to tactical commanders, she said, has made it possible “to normalize operations similar this so nosotros genuinely are using the intelligence to inform in addition to enable farther targeting.”
Ultimately, said the Army’s deputy master copy of staff for intelligence (G-2), Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, the Army in addition to its beau services demand to integrate intelligence, cyber warfare, in addition to electronic warfare to realize their vision of Multi-Domain Operations, inwards which U.S. forces launch coordinated attacks, both physical in addition to electronic, from land, sea, air, space, in addition to cyberspace.
Over 17 years of fighting terrorists in addition to insurgents, “our SIGINT forces mastered the fine art in addition to scientific discipline of identifying in addition to tracking private threats with pinpoint precision,” Berrier told the forum. “We at nowadays human face upwardly a meaning challenge on a much larger scale, combat operations with near-peer in addition to peer competitors.”
Even if nosotros never create out Russian Federation or Cathay directly, Berrier said — in addition to let’s promise nosotros never do — we’ll human face upwardly the engineering they sell approximately the world. In places similar Ukraine, U.S. partners are already fighting Russian proxies. So to encounter this challenge, Berrier said, he lately approved a Signals Intelligence strategy with 4 main lines of effort:
Build a SIGINT forcefulness that’s responsive to in addition to closely integrated with tactical units, from corps headquarters on down;
Apply what SIGINT has learned inwards counterinsurgency in addition to counterterrorism over the terminal 17 years to high-intensity warfare;
Buy novel equipment, ground-based in addition to airborne, that’s upwardly to the challenge of dandy ability adversaries; and
Develop novel doctrine, land manuals in addition to concepts for large-scale combat.
Tomorrow’s mission-critical decisions volition rely on multi-domain C2. Today, Raytheon is integrating the best defense forcefulness systems with the best commercial technologies to acquire inwards possible.
Thanks to enthusiastic back upwardly from both Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, in addition to lately departed master copy of Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris, an experimental unit of measurement called the Multi-Domain Task Force is already exercising some of these concepts inwards PACOM. It’s built approximately an Army artillery brigade — both cannons in addition to long-range missiles — augmented with long-range sensors to discovery targets in addition to an integrated Intelligence, Cyber, & Electronic Warfare (ICEW) squad that tin phase non-physical attacks.
“If yous desire to shoot 500 or a G miles, yous receive got to reckon 500 or a G miles,” Berrier said. “This is the agency of the future.” Getting there, though, requires overcoming the ways of the past.
The Army disbanded its Combat Electronic Warfare Intelligence (CEWI) units, similar the 1 shown here, after the Cold War.
The “Green Door” Problem
For generations, Army commanders receive got complained that Signals Intelligence operated behind a “green door” of safety restrictions that kept them from sharing vital intelligence inwards fourth dimension to human activity on it. For its part, Army SIGINT tended to reckon its primary client every bit the National Security Agency, non combat units. In this context, the SIGINT community was leery of anyone really taking activeness based on intelligence, lest it give away a rootage of long-term strategic value for a short-term tactical gain.
But inwards Afghanistan, Iraq, in addition to Syria, the U.S. armed forces was trying to find, target, in addition to capture or kill telephone commutation insurgents in addition to terrorists, who kept constantly on the move. That meant intelligence on their location had to acquire to tactical commanders fast, earlier the target moved again. If yous wanted the drone to burn the Hellfire at the correct target, or the special operators to boot downwardly the correct door, yous needed to bust downwardly the greenish door first.
Army Special Forces inwards Afghanistan
Conversely, in 1 trial Earth troops grabbed a High Value Target, they had to acquire his cellphone, laptop, in addition to other devices to the intelligence analysts ASAP so his contacts could survive tracked downwardly in addition to special operators could travel after them earlier they scattered. The upshot was a self-reinforcing bike that generated much to a greater extent than intelligence than you’d acquire yesteryear only passively listening to the enemy. So today, tight integration betwixt signals intelligence in addition to tactical commanders for such “intelligence-driven operations” has travel virtually routine — on a modest scale. But there’s a large divergence betwixt targeting a Taliban bomb-maker on his cellular telephone inwards someone’s garage every bit opposed to a Russian full general on a high-security network inwards the middle of a tank division.
For the many scenarios inwards high-end warfare when a target is besides well-protected for other forces to bomb or capture, the Army wants the alternative to hack the target’s network or jam its radio signals — to disrupt what it cannot destroy. That requires SIGINT to mitt the target information to so-called “non-kinetic” ways of disrupting the enemy through cyber in addition to electronic warfare. But there’s a profound institutional imbalance here.
SIGINT is 1 of the most influential in addition to good established technical branches of the Army, inwards large component due to its intimate human relationship with the NSA. But cyber is the newest branch, albeit benefiting from rapid growth in addition to high-level attention, with its offensive capabilities highly cloak-and-dagger in addition to tightly restricted. And Army electronic warfare was largely disbanded after the Cold War in addition to remains a small, underfunded force with rattling lilliputian actual hardware beyond short-range jammers to hold roadside bombs from detonating.
So patch the “green door” betwixt intelligence in addition to operations may receive got been kicked down, rattling existent barriers stay betwixt intelligence, cyber, in addition to electronic warfare.
Army Guardrail Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft
The CENTCOM Model
Central Command — which oversees Afghanistan, Iraq, in addition to Syria — has forced intelligence officers in addition to combat commanders to piece of work together inwards novel ways, said Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty. This is possible, inwards part, because intelligence has gotten improve at “sanitizing” information so tactical operators tin utilisation it without inadvertently revealing intelligence sources in addition to methods, he said. But intel has also grown to a greater extent than willing to accept the “tremendous risk” that something powerfulness sideslip out anyway, because the greater take away chances was that non acting on the intelligence would toll lives.
Fogarty lived all this first-hand. Now caput of Army Cyber Command, he was previously caput of the Army cyber schoolhouse at Fort Gordon in addition to the top intelligence officeholder (J-2) for Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan and, later, CENTCOM every bit a whole. But Fogarty’s far from alone: Not only his beau high-level panelists, but 2 veterans inwards the audience members on Capitol Hill — a immature officeholder in addition to a retired full general — took the microphone to concur with him.
Lt. Gen. (then Maj. Gen.) Stephen Fogarty reviews the troops on taking command of the Army Cyber Center at Fort Gordon.
“What I saw inwards theater, [in] my fourth dimension inwards CENTCOM in addition to multiple trips to Afghanistan, is that SIGINT drove operations…down to the most tactical level,” Fogarty said. National Security Agency SIGINTers — “both civilian in addition to military” — were really sitting side-by-side with combat officers inwards Army brigade headquarters and, inwards some cases, fifty-fifty on company-sized Combat Outposts (COPs), he said. (This is rattling similar to how the National Reconnaissance Office has operated over the terminal decade on the battlefield with its Field Representative program.) Now many of the company, battalion, in addition to brigade commanders who grew accustomed to this unopen back upwardly are leading the Army. “The guys who were lieutenants, captains, majors, lieutenant colonels that are at nowadays two, three, in addition to 4 stars today, that’s what they expect,” Fogarty said.
Of course, what broke downwardly the traditional barriers betwixt intelligence in addition to operations was “the tremendous pressure” of wartime, when U.S. in addition to allied lives were inwards danger every day. “What we’ve got to brand sure,” Fogarty said, “is nosotros maintain that pressure level in addition to that nosotros don’t regress to where nosotros were potentially dorsum inwards the Cold War.”
Testing at Army Electronic Proving Ground at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.
What’s New?
So what is Army intelligence really doing to create on the counterterrorist successes of the yesteryear in addition to laid upwardly for a dandy ability conflict inwards the future?
Most immediately, the Army is changing how it trains, everything from novel schoolhouse courses for officers to novel land exercises for entire brigades.
When an infantryman or tanker gets promoted to a leadership role, Berrier noted, they attend specialized courses to assist them develop a bigger-picture perspective on the battlefield. For their part, intelligence leaders demand to travel beyond technical grooming inwards purely intelligence tasks — every bit complex in addition to challenging every bit that is — in addition to acquire how to “integrate our highly technical skills into tactical formations” amongst infantry, armor, artillery, aviation, cyber/electronic warfare, in addition to the rest.
Russian Krasukha-2 radar jamming system, reportedly deployed inwards Syria
Intelligence soldiers in addition to officers also demand to exercise their technical in addition to tactical skills inwards real-world conditions. That’s non tardily to arrange. First, the police line is far to a greater extent than restrictive of grooming inwards the U.S. than operations overseas, peculiarly when it comes to intelligence collection inwards the vicinity of U.S. citizens. Second, the electromagnetic transmissions SIGINTers demand to exercise detecting tin interfere with civilian electronics, in addition to the Army doesn’t desire to create out the FCC. Training for electronic warfare, which involves deliberately disrupting signals, is fifty-fifty trickier. The best site for such grooming inwards the US, non coincidentally, is the Army Electronic Proving Ground at Fort Huachuca, abode of the intelligence branch. Berrier commanded Fort Huachuca until he handed the undertaking over to Maj. Gen. Robert Walters. Since units testing or grooming at that topographic point are isolated from civilian population centers yesteryear wide deserts in addition to high mountains, Walters told the Capitol Hill forum, “they tin plough their jammers on in addition to nosotros don’t receive got planes crashing inwards Tucson.”
Unfortunately, U.S. electronic warriors don’t receive got many jammers to plough on, non yet. (We’ll delve into that tomorrow). But at to the lowest degree Army SIGINT systems similar Prophet tin develop at Huachuca on detecting in addition to analyzing existent signals. The Army is also trying to replicate or imitate enemy signals at its Combat Training Centers inwards California, Louisiana, in addition to Germany. Even so, some aspects of high-tech, high-intensity warfare may only survive replicable inwards simulations, Berrier said. The Army’s telephone commutation tool hither is a simulator called IEWTPT, the Intelligence Electronic Warfare Tactical Proficiency Trainer.
Chinese HQ-9 anti-aircraft missile launcher, which tin downwardly many electrical current U.S. intelligence aircraft
Training to do improve with electrical current technology, however, is non enough. Current systems were designed in addition to fielded at a fourth dimension when the U.S. could operate freely inwards the electromagnetic spectrum, Berrier said, where the main work was non enemy activity but inadvertent interference from other U.S. systems (known every bit “electronic fratricide” or “blue on blue”). Against Russia, Cathay — or anyone who’s bought their latest systems — the spectrum volition travel a battlefield. So the Army needs to develop novel equipment designed to withstand hacking, jamming, in addition to other rigors of high-tech combat, similar advanced anti-aircraft systems that tin shoot downwardly sentinel planes, drones, in addition to helicopters.
Ultimately, the Army envisions multi-purpose systems that tin non only discovery in addition to analyze enemy signals — the SIGINT business office — but also disrupt or subvert those signals — the cyber/electronic warfare functions. That makes a lot of sense, inwards theory, since cyber/EW needs SIGINT to discovery its targets inwards the commencement place. But it’s much to a greater extent than complicated to implement inwards practice, less because the engineering is tricky than because of the intense tribal rivalries inside the Army. We’ll delve into those divisions in addition to possible solutions inwards a minute article, due out tomorrow.
Rapidly making multi-domain command in addition to command a reality
Raytheon is integrating the best defense forcefulness systems with the best commercial tech to quickly realize multi-domain C2. With deep cybersecurity, automation in addition to analytics expertise — in addition to telephone commutation partnerships inwards the private sector — we’re driving tomorrow’s mission success.
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