STO pushes Force-level EW approach

The Australian Defence Force has security and defence responsibilities over some ten percent of the Earth's surface. To meet these responsibilities it operates a small number of operational assets and platforms. Even a low attrition rate would have a significant effect on Australia's surveillance and combat capabilities, while a small force faces significant challenges in trying to achieve high levels of situational awareness and then dominating its battlespace.

The capabilities of modern guided weapons, the range of platforms from which they can be launched, and the diversity of their guidance and terminal homing systems present a growing threat to the ADF. This threat has traditionally been met at a discrete platform level by on-board Electronic Warfare Self-Protection (EWSP) systems of one kind or another, but the ADF's hitherto platform-centric approach to EW no longer meets its wider needs, says Dr David Heilbron, Chief of DSTO's Electronic warfare Division at Salisbury.

First of all, EWSP is a reactive approach which does nothing to wrest the tactical initiative from an adversary. Secondly, EWSP makes at best a minor contribution to platform- and force-level situational awareness and battlespace dominance, Heilbron says. The latter, in particular, requires the ADF to exploit the entire electro-magnetic spectrum and, if necessary, deny its use to an adversary.

Heilbron advocates a more coherent Force-Level EW (FLEW) approach across the entire Australian Defence Organisation, but especially the ADF. The requirements for a complete FLEW capability, says Heilbron, are:

* good EW self protection - based on useable threat data

* good platform-to-platform data links and situational awareness (SA)

* good Electronic Support (ES) & Electronic Attack (EA) systems integration

* digital RF memory-based stand-off/stand-in systems matched to threat systems

* good Electronic Intelligence fusion and relevant databases

* good EW models, simulation, and synthetic environments

* good campaign level models for EW

These requirements transcend the traditional environmental boundaries of air, land, and sea, and also the operational boundaries of tactical and strategic, Heilbron told ADM. In both cases, this is because the sub-systems which deliver the EW product occupy multiple domains.

An effective FLEW capability requires the ADF to adopt a strategic approach to EW equipment acquisition. Moreover, EW should no longer be a single service responsibility - we need to think more in terms of joint force operations, Heilbron says. That is not to downplay the importance of effective EWSP, which is critical in a modern threat environment, he emphasised, nevertheless platform-level EWSP resources must be considered within the wider framework of a Force Level EW concept. Therefore, Heilbron told ADM, Australia must adopt a 'whole of Defence' EW approach as a matter of priority, not least to end the current fragmented approach to equipment acquisition.

The bottom line, believes Heilbron, is simple: in the current EW and missile environment, an ADF unit's last resort - its EWSP capability - may also be its first and only available response to an attack. An effective Force-Level EW capability can add two or three extra layers of protection to platforms and task groups and transform EWSP from the only chance into the last chance. And it will contribute to the ADF's goal of wider battlespace dominance, he emphasised.

By Gregor Ferguson, Adelaide