|
During their recent rotation at the National Training Center at
Fort Irwin, California, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st
Infantry Division, consolidated their cyber electromagnetic
activities’ (CEMA) electronic warfare (EW) Soldiers into a
front-line force that engaged the opposition on a less-traditional
battlefield.
“Everyone thinks that it is Jedi mind tricks,”
said Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Connolly, 2nd ABCT’s CEMA noncommissioned
officer in charge. “Everyone is so used to shooting a bullet and
seeing it hit a target, or shooting rounds and seeing stuff get
blown up. People don’t really understand the cyber or EW fight until
they’re being jammed on everything.”
|
May 15, 2017 - The newly formed Cyber Electromagnetic Activities
section of 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division,
poses for a photo during decisive action rotation 17-06 at the
National Training Center on Fort Irwin, California. The section was
comprised of electronic warfare noncommissioned officers from
multiple battalions within “Dagger” brigade. (U.S. Army courtesy photo)
|
EW Soldiers locate enemy transmissions on the
electromagnetic spectrum and use what they find to
determine, among other things, the location of the enemy.
“A lot of stuff nowadays has some type of emitter
from cell phones to wireless mice … no one can see it,”
Connolly said. “Our target is stuff like that on the
(electromagnetic) spectrum such as communications, data
links like Wi-Fi, anything like that is what we are here to
target in order to facilitate the commanders on the field.”
The role that Connolly and
his Soldiers played at NTC in April and May was a new
opportunity for them, he said. Traditionally electronic
warfare personnel have been designated to battalion and
brigade operations shops as planners, rather than hands-on
professionals on the front lines. However, 2nd ABCT embraced
the changing role of electronic warfare. By building on what
other units have been doing across the Army, the Dagger
brigade was able to use these personnel in concert with
maneuver elements.
“It’s definitely a whole new
concept for the Army — putting electronic warfare
specialists on the front lines — but, they actually did it
way back in the 80s and in Vietnam too,” Connolly said.
While previous incarnations of EW involved intercepting
enemy communications, the current legacy has been building
on that endeavor.
“We set up into three different
teams,” Connolly said. “Two electronic warfare support teams
… which pretty much monitor indicators and warnings so if
something comes up we can warn people around us. Then we had
one electronic attack team, which those guys would be my
jammers on the ground if I needed it. Which we did use them
to jam, same thing with our two enabler teams.”
In
addition to simply jamming an enemy signal, modern EW
Soldiers with the right equipment are capable of much more,
Connolly said. When dealing with unmanned aircraft systems,
the team has a host of options that include downing the
aircraft, or even requiring it to return to a designated
landing area.
“We were able to do a lot of new stuff
and it pretty much shaped the battlefield a whole lot more
against the OPFOR (opposing force),” Connolly said, “just
because they were so used to using their UAS to be able to
call for fire all the time on all the units. No one could do
anything about it. But we were able to do it, we were able
to shut down 60 percent of their UAS missions.”
Taking away a large part of the OPFOR’s surveillance made
for fewer battalion and brigade jumps, saving time and
energy throughout the unit.
“Once we intercept it,
we figure out if it allowed for jamming or not,” Connolly
said. Following the intercept and determination, the rest of
the training became notional as the EW teams didn’t want to
potentially destroy the expensive UAS systems.
The
teams found themselves capable of stopping additional
threats and hampering the OPFOR on the ground as well.
“It’s not just UAS; we found a few observation points we
called for fire on,” Connolly said.
Having been
spread across the brigade up until the rotation, there were
some tactical hiccups within the teams that required some
effort before cohesion was built, according to Connolly.
However, by the end of the rotation, EW Soldiers from
multiple battalions were working together as one solidified
asset.
“One thing that I’ve noticed with all of the
EW NCOs, as soon as we heard that we were consolidating for
NTC, we all wanted it to succeed,” Connolly said. “Not just
for the consolidation part afterwards, but we actually got
to go do our jobs so a lot of the EW NCOs were extremely
motivated.”
EW Soldiers who work closely with
planning operations to provide support also saw the benefit
of having teams in the field.
“It is better for them
to be in the field where they can actually do their job,
like triangulating signals,” said Staff Sgt. Kyle Nussbaumer,
2nd ABCT CEMA spectrum manager. “If they were at the TOC
(tactical operations center) location they wouldn’t be able
to do that. (It allowed for) quicker, more accurate
reporting.”
Communication between the spectrum
manager and the EW teams helped expedite the process of
elimination when attempting to detect enemy threats.
“Anybody could be out there with let’s say a spectrum
analyzer and see a bunch of lines but not know exactly what
it is,” said Sgt. Albert Manglona, electronic warfare NCO.
“I was on both sides, for the first couple of days I was
with the teams and I was with the TOC. From the TOC’s
perspective it is good that they were out because, it gives
the TOC a better understanding of what is out there. Having
them (EW teams) relay back whatever information they pick up
or basically whatever they detect. Rather than just hearing
it from unit’s who (might) not necessarily know what they
are looking at.”
Ultimately the EW consolidation
proved fruitful for Dagger brigade, which has decided to
keep EW Soldiers from across the formation consolidated.
We “proved the concept of consolidation,” Nussbaumer
said. “I think the command teams now have a better
understanding of how valuable EW is. It’s a lot easier for
them now that they know how it works and what asset it
brings to the table, they’re more willing to give up their
EW NCOs for consolidation so that it better supports the
team as a whole.”
Staying consolidated will also have
benefits to the EW Soldiers with both their tactical and
technical skills as well as their careers, Connolly said.
“Now I have EWOs (electronic warfare noncommissioned
officers) surrounded by EWOs so whenever we do training we
can bounce ideas off of each other,” Connolly said. “You try
and do training at the battalion level when you’re the only
EWO or there’s only two, you don’t get much discussion.”
Looking forward, members of the newly consolidated EW
teams are planning to further prove themselves during Dagger
brigade’s upcoming Europe rotation and capitalize on their
success at NTC.
“It was a big eye opener for the
entire brigade to see what we can do when we are all
consolidated,” Manglona said. “Before it was just word of
mouth, someone was saying it was best that we put everyone
together, but after NTC it proved that it was beneficial.”
By U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Roach
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2017
Comment on this article |
