The military believes that micro-electronic devices have great potential and can revolutionize warfare through a large number of expendable, interconnected drones. However, the F-35 error cannot be repeated by creating a single large multi-service program. Washington: How do you reduce electronics and bureaucracy at the same time? This is the challenge Jim Faist faces when coordinating frontier research in the service sector.
The Pentagon's senior function director said: "They must work together." But you don't have to work together like the military in the F-35 stealth fighter. In a single program, three variants of the aircraft are being developed for three different services. He said: "Establish a joint planning office. You are building a huge bureaucracy to perform unsatisfactory requirements verification." Usually this is not necessary. "
Applying the Hypersonics model to electronic warfare, Faist said: "I believe it is not a (emphasized) joint planning office, but a joint project for specific problems." "Perhaps the most successful thing on my watch is supersonic." Hypersonic missiles are launched by trucks, while the Navy's are launched by submarines. Both services use the same slippers (including warheads) and the same rocket boosters. They are just different in packaging. At the same time, the Air Force is seeking more compact hypersonic technology to take off from aircraft based on the same basic technology. Faist is committed to providing assistance to the National Defense Science and Technology Research Agency to promote the development of these basic technologies, prototyping and coordinating the independent efforts of the service department, but it plays a supporting and supporting role rather than a guiding role.
Faist said: "We are adopting this model, and we are in electronic warfare... exactly the same." In addition, he believes, "Once a large planning office is established, only large companies can win." However, for microelectronics and non Man-machine and many other technologies, he said: "You can use many suppliers to get cheaper solutions."
What does this mean for the Pentagon plan? Fest said: "If they have a slightly different version with the Air Force just because they chose a different provider or have slightly different requirements, it really doesn't matter." He said: "If you develop the Technology and save money in the RDTE stage", in terms of the final product of each service, "they need not be the same." He told me that the goal is to bring together engineers from different service departments to solve common problems. The top-down control aims to ensure compatibility of the final product, rather than imposing common requirements and procedures at the beginning.
Indeed, a single electronic warfare joint planning bureau may be worse than hypersonic or fighter combat plans. This is because electronic warfare is not a single platform type different from missiles or aircraft: from jets that block surface-to-air missiles to Hummers that block radio-controlled street bombs, all types of platforms increasingly require this capability. In addition, modern electronic warfare related to cell phone jammer signals has become increasingly blurred as intelligence eavesdropping on the enemy and even the exchanges between friendly forces.
As microelectronics becomes more and more common, a single active electronic scanning array (such as F-35's AESA) can send, receive or jam radar pulses and radio messages, while acting as sensors, communication devices, jammers, and cyber weapons. As microelectronics continue to shrink, you can place these multifunctional arrays on smaller and smaller platforms-on every plane, drone, robot, ground vehicle, and even every soldier-and then place these microarrays Network, work in a way beyond Power . Beyond the capabilities of a single large system.
Faist said: "We can develop broadband AESA technology, these technologies can immediately perceive SIGINT on the list." "In the technology we use now, the hardware, physical layer can complete all these multi-tasks." He admitted, using this Flexibility is a challenge for today's military procurement organizations. "A service is used to purchase a communication system or a radar system. If you tell them that you have a system that can perform both tasks at the same time, then... how will you get the requirements for the merger?" he asked. "Designing it correctly and implementing it may be the biggest challenge we face. Faist believes it is worth the effort. Compared with many large dedicated systems, many small multipurpose systems provide you with some basic advantages.
From several large and distant places to many small and close places, he told me that Faist's career began as a radar designer. In the radar field, people have long recognized the value of so-called multi-static systems. You don’t need many large transceiver antennas. Instead, you can use many small transmitters. They can all be networked to guide their beams. You can also use many small receivers, all of which can combine their data into a large image, just like radio The telescope works the same way.
When you combine radio telescopes 5,000 miles apart, their combined resolution is the same as that of a single telescope 5,000 miles in diameter. However, this type of distributed system requires ultra-precise timing and reliable connections, which were not available on the battlefield in the past. Now they are more and more. With new technology, you can not only do things the old way, but you can also do better. It actually opened up a whole new strategy. Imagine if you have a lot of chess pieces that can only move a few inches upwards, and no queen can move in all directions, then you can move the pieces to many different directions instead of having so many differences like chess.
Today, the US military relies on so-called low-demand, high-demand systems, such as EC-130H compass calls to disrupt enemy communications, E-8C JSTARS uses radar to track ground targets and E-3 AWACS to track aircraft. These platforms will extract a lot of electromagnetic energy, making it relatively easy for the enemy to find, resist and destroy. And when you are destroyed, it requires many special skills. Faist said: "Bigger platforms are expensive." "They are big goals."
On the contrary, if a large number of small systems are connected together, a comparable overall capacity can be obtained. It is difficult for the enemy to detect a specific node, and if the node is destroyed, the harm is less. This is the logic behind the Air Force’s JSTARS replacement program, which is transformed into an Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), which attempts to network various sensors and weapons across various services-part of the "joint global command and control" concept.
Yes, if your network goes down, smart opponents will do their best to shut it down and you will be in trouble. However, large old school platforms also rely on uninterrupted communications-early warning aircraft that cannot share information with friendly fighter jets are largely useless-and are more vulnerable to destruction. This is because weak signals are more susceptible to interference than strong signals, and radio signals reduce Power exponentially with distance: the distance doubles, and the transmission Power is only a quarter. If you expand the range four times, it has dropped to one sixteenth. Therefore, it is much easier to relay signals from node to node in short hops than to send signals directly over long distances. It means a lot of little things
Faist said: "In general, when you are close to [near], you have a better chance of burning the exit and actually solving the problem of traffic congestion." "When you reach a longer trunk, such as back to the command node, you Will be more vulnerable to attack." How to minimize the amount of long-distance transfer? You need every node-drone, manned vehicle or soldier-to be able to work as autonomously as possible. Instead of relying on constant high bandwidth and low-latency transmission to remote operators, analysts or commanders, it is better to package each node into its own built-in artificial intelligence.
"Suppose we can have a UAS system that has full-rate video, the video bandwidth is the uplink through satellite communication [satellite communication], and it is the downlink to the people who operate it, Faist said. "The paradigm must change . "He said: "They are indeed promoting the development of the latest autonomous solutions based on artificial intelligence. "When you reach this tactical level... you will be able to afford as many AI-based things as possible. "
