Electronic & Cyber ​​warfare: Changing strategy to regain the advantage

At the request of the United States Senate, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, or CSCA, released a study concerning the future of electronic warfare, and how American forces can and must respond to maintain the advantage. The desired objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of current responses in terms of electronic warfare implemented by the Pentagon, for a substantial budget of more than $10 billion per year, facing Russian electronic warfare capabilities and Chinese, and, if necessary, how to redirect these credits to improve this effectiveness, and guarantee the advantage to American forces.

The observation on the current situation of the CSBA is hardly a surprise for anyone interested in electronic warfare issues: Today, the Russian and Chinese armies have means far superior to those of the American forces in this domain. Worse, the very high costs and the very nature of the solutions currently developed by the Pentagon, such as the ALQ-249 jamming pod which must equip the EA-18G Growler of the US Navy, and the SLQ-32 or SEWIP for Shipboard Electronic Warfare Improvement Program equipping the ships, hinder the chances of restoring the balance. In fact, this equipment captures most of the credits invested in the field of Electronic and Cyber ​​Warfare, without increasing the real number of effectors, which remains unchanged. However, it is precisely in this area that China and Russia surpass the US forces.

To respond to this observation, the consequences of which can effectively call into question the capabilities of American forces to gain the advantage and ensure victory against their adversary, the CSBA therefore proposes to redefine the very paradigms of electronic warfare. The recommended solution is based on 2 key points:

• Create a much larger number of semi-consumable effectors, but less powerful and less expensive, capable of supporting combat forces as closely as possible by bringing the power differential to the right place, and at the right time.
• Optimize the use of these effectors by a global algorithm at the level of the theater of operation, processing on the one hand the requests defining the objectives to be achieved, the place and time of the engagement, on the other hand the entire fleet of effectors available in the theater. To achieve this, the CSBA recommends the use of an algorithm, somewhat hastily described as artificial intelligence, comparable to that used by Uber to optimize the journeys of its fleet of vehicles in relation to user transport requests. .

The approach recommended by the CSBA is, in fact, quite close to that which underlies the FCAS program bringing together France, Germany and Spain to design the next generation of air combat system. The program also relies on the use semi-consumable effectors, Remote Carriers, drones accompanying the piloted device to extend its detection and action capabilities, by transporting sensors or active systems, such as weapons, or electronic jamming systems. But the Think Tank's recommendation goes further than the European program, by adding optimization of the use of these drones and aircraft at the scale of the theater of operations, thanks to a global algorithm.

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