Place and role of EW in operations of large strategic formations of services and components of the armed forces.

The new phase of the scientific and technological revolution of the end of the 20th century related to computerization of the military in industrialized nations and equipping them in the future with weapons based on new physical principles substantially changes not only the contents and scale of future operations but also the role and place in them of concrete combat arms and special troops. This fully applies to the changing status of EW in operations of large strategic formations of armed services.

Analysis of open military press sources in the last decade points to a stable regularity with which articles and publications appear that discuss the "place and role" where "role" is interpreted as "the degree (measure) of participation in something" and "place" is interpreted as "the status held in something." (1) Both notions are interrelated and they correlate as twin categories which characterize in certain ways concrete entities, phenomena and actions.

The following algorithm can be used to determine the place and role of EW in operations (based on the quantity-quality estimation of its contribution to operational missions). Step one consists of predicting changes in the development of variously tasked electronic systems and facilities (ES and EF)--traditional EW entities. Step two serves to prove the extent of the importance of such changes and how they influence potential roles and places of RW forces and facilities in engaging these entities. Step three consists of estimating the extent to which the potentialities of future ES and EF can be realized in operations if they are engaged by existing and advanced RW forces and facilities.

There is hardly anyone today who doubts that combat capabilities of modern and especially advanced weapon systems largely depend on the effectiveness of their electronic and computer-controlled components. The implementation of programs to computerize the U.S. army corps is expected to raise its combat capabilities by the year 2010 by more than 50 percent with no increase in its authorized strength.

In the context of combat operations, computerization has internal and external aspects. The former implies the growth of combat capabilities of weapons based on advanced information technology (IT) and microelectronics in guidance systems. For its part, the external aspect has to do with enhanced quality of IT support of command and control elements in operation (combat). At the same time, an advanced system of IT support of combat operations (2) based on forming special information centers with multilevel multiple access distributed databases and access to them for executing elements brings about a qualitative change in the role and place of potential EW entities. The creation of a system enabling direct feeding of information via network channels to the cycles that control troops and weapons elevates it to the operational level as a potential EW entity.

All this points to a high potential significance of future entities of electronic warfare and, consequently, its growing impact on the realization of combat potentials of troops and weapons of the opposing side. However, the actual role of forces and facilities of EW and, consequently, its place in operations of large strategic formations of armed services will largely depend on the quality-quantity composition of EW equipment and, most importantly, advanced equipment. The pressing nature of fitting out EW forces and facilities with qualitatively new equipment also lies in the fact that electronic and computerized entities and means in IT control systems after 2010 will be practically immune to some forms of electronic effects using conventional types interference. This, therefore, calls for a comprehensive approach to combating such systems based on the use of primarily advanced types of EW equipment such as precision EW weapons (weapons homing to emission sources) and assets for electronic-degrading effects.

The possibility of equipping the troops with new weapons can lead to the advent of yet another type of engaging the adversary in operations--electronic engagement representing organized effects on enemy electronic and computer assets and/or on the environment where electromagnetic of hydroacoustic waves propagate using special assets (electronic weapons).

The advent of electronic weapons makes determining its place and role in operation and comprehensive engagement of adversaries a pressing matter. Another problem is the emerging contradiction between the contents of future operations and the place and role in them of electronic engagement, on the one hand, and its place in EW as a type of operational (combat) support. A formal primary solution to this contradiction can be demonstrated using the example of ensuring correspondence of predicted changes in structural and physical content of modern-day operations and contributions to them of combat arms and special troops.

According to basics of military art, direct damage is inflicted on the adversary in the course of combat operations by armed services and combat arms. Support of their operations is tasked to appropriate services (reconnaissance, EW, etc.). Based on the physical content of combat operations, every armed service and combat arm is intended for combating some or other warfare participant. Thus, battlefield air defense in operations of large ground force strategic formations make the decisive contribution to combating offensive air weapons (roughly 60 percent), missile forces and artillery make the main contribution (within 50 percent) to the destruction of hostile artillery. The leading role in combating hostile naval vessels naturally belongs to naval forces (approximately 70 percent). As for combating EW enemy command and control systems, it has remained on the sidelines being distributed between component arms. They account for 20 to 30 percent of the effort.

Expected changes in structural and physical content of future combat operations owing both to computerization and informatization of the military and potentialities of new EW equipment will make combating electronic systems and facilities and computer equipment the principal content of future combat operations.

Considering the high resistance of elements in future hostile IT support systems to conventional effects, special assets must make the major contribution (of up to 70 percent) to combating its ES, EF and computer equipment. It is expected that new EW assets will enter the operational inventory of such combat arms as the missile forces and artillery, air defense forces, naval forces and frontal aviation. At the same time, their belonging to these combat arms and armed services is mainly due to appropriate platforms.

The changing role and place of potential EW entities in future operations and providing strategic formations of armed services with advanced EW equipment prepare material prerequisites for organizing somewhere down the road a new combat arm (EW forces) which is directly involved in combat operations and inflicts damage on the enemy.

It should also be noted that there are two distinct tendencies in the contents of future combat operations. First, combat operations are taking on an increasingly combined-arms nature where no combat arm plays the leading role. Second, there is potential prevalent role of EW troops in combating hostile IT-controlled systems.

Thus, this analysis of the state and directions of evolution of hostile systems of IT support of combat operations, the role and place in them of electronic facilities and computer equipment attests to a high potential importance (role) of electronic warfare in all operations of large strategic formations of armed services and component arms and realistic grounds for transformation of advanced EW forces and assets and their becoming a new combat arm (EW forces).

NOTES:

1. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedov, Tolkovyi slovar russkogo yazyka, AZ Publishers, Moscow, 1994.

2. See: Yu.E. Donskov, V.V. Fomin, "Information Superiority in Warfare," Military Thought, No. 4, 2003.

Capt. 1st Rank Yu.I. MAYEVSKIY

Candidate of Technical Sciences