The naval EW system: structure, lines of development.

Electronic warfare (EW), being a major component of operational (combat) support, is organized and conduced in the interest of enhancing the Navy's effectiveness in operations (combat actions) and maintaining its ability to stand up in combat. The organizational and technical basis of its conduct in naval operations (combat actions) is the Navy's EW system. This concept was first introduced in the Navy in 1976 under a corresponding directive by the Navy commander in chief. In 1986, a concept for the development of the Navy's EW system for the period until 2000 was approved, which, due to the changes that had occurred in the country, was implemented only partially. By 2000, pursuant to this concept for the development of the naval command and control system, fundamental provisions were adopted for advancing the naval EW system for the period until 2020 and a concept for the development of the EW technology and equipment of the Russian Armed Forces as a whole until 2015. In 2002, the Russian president issued Decree #8996, approving the Basic Principles of the Policy of the Russian Federation in Developing the EW System for the Period until 2010 and the Subsequent Period, laying down and defining the objectives, principles, priorities, and principal tasks in developing the EW system in the interest of the country's defense and security. At the same time, none of the aforementioned documents, in our opinion, provided a full, scientifically substantiated definition of the EW system of the country, its Armed Forces, or the Navy.

From a systems analysis perspective, a system is an organized sum total of interconnected and interacting elements comprising a single functional whole. A system's most important function is command and control, which is designed to fulfill a set program of actions (algorithm) to attain specific objectives (fulfill specific tasks) and preserve the system's stability and balance (that is to say, the aggregate of its properties and characteristics whose loss will result in its destruction). Connection between the elements of such systems is ensured through direct and reverse information flows.

As a general rule, command and control systems (including those of military and state importance) are complex, self-organizing setups. They are characterized by a diversity of forms of command and control with regard to subsystems on different levels (of the command chain) and the existence of a central command and control agency. Thus, the Navy's EW system is a target specific organizational and technical integration of EW command and control assets and forces that have command and control, communication and information links between their elements and components, as well as with other systems and the external environment. Its functional component is the Navy's EW jamming system.

The Navy's EW system includes:

* command and control agencies, comprised of the EW command and control stations of strategic formations, large combined units, groupings and tactical groups of naval forces as well as the command and control stations of coastal and fleet task EW subunits;

* EW forces and assets under central command, EW units (subunits) of strategic formations, large combined units and groupings of naval forces (troops) as well as coast-, fleet-, and air-based EW assets;

* a command and control system, comprised of communication assets of strategic formations, large combined arms units, tactical naval groups, and EW units (subunits) and naval EW automated command and control systems, comprising the Navy's integrated automated command and control system.

Development of the Navy's EW system is one of the priority lines of the state's force organization policy. This is due to the following factors: expansion in the use of information technology (IT) in all spheres of activity, which necessitates more effective forms and methods of ensuring Russia's national security; the growing importance of EW as one of the most viable, effective and economically advantageous methods of neutralizing a possible adversary in the information and military sphere; the evolution of current trends toward a possible transformation of EW from a type of combat service support operations into a specific form of military action.

The Basic Principles of RF Policy in Developing the EW System define its ultimate objective as "creating a multifunctional EW system as a principal element in ensuring the state's national security." (1)

One essential element of the Navy's EW system is its sea based component, including the subsystems of task forces, fleets, and separate warships functioning in interaction with the command and control agencies and forces and assets of fleets' EW coastal system (see Fig.). An enlarged structure of the task force EW subsystem is a standard configuration of a fleet force command and control station. Its distinguishing features include the ability to operate amid the utmost uncertainty and provide the maximum possible amount of information support as well as prompt and effective response by EW jamming assets. All of this sets an array of requirements for the command and control subsystem, software, information sources, and executive units and instruments.

[FIGURE OMITTED]

The main parameter of the operational effectiveness of the entire EW subsystem in an operational task force is the input data that are used for making decisions on the employment of jamming assets and forces. The best possible realization of current signaling information processing does not impede the effective operation of the command and control subsystem amid uncertainty related to disinformation on the part of the enemy. The tough standards and regulations concerning the promptness and effectiveness of decisions made at EW command and control stations require the constant modernization and upgrading of the automated two-way command and control system and its software. In substantiating the expediency of decisions that are made, it is critical to ensure the formalization of the EW situation, its modeling and presentation as an information structure in machine readable format.

The tactical, task force level of EW decision making is today best developed on the theoretical level and backed up with the most advanced technology. It is the view of the present authors that the tactical level in EW suppression of individual EW assets as elements of the adversary's information structure will be the first step in the introduction of information warfare (IW), beginning with the transition from power-per-unit to information indicators of operational effectiveness.

Modernization of the EW system in providing combat support to naval forces in EW at sea requires the development of the modern theory which defines the role, methods and procedure of electronic warfare as one of the most active components of information warfare. EW assets constitute the basis of modern information and command and control systems. The employment of EW forces and assets helps not only disrupt or distort information flows within the enemy's command and control structures, but also produce significant information impacts on its information systems (the principle of using information to impact on information).

One of the tasks that could be fulfilled by organizing effective impacts on the enemy's information systems is enhancing the level of covertness and concealment of operation by naval forces at sea through the organization of EW concealment and deception. This can be done by forming (designing) a dynamic information structure targeting the enemy's information system, as well as by limiting the volume of information on the identification features of real objects (targets) and processes with a simultaneous increase in the amount of decoy and deceptive information. Thus, the enemy will have the illusion of surplus information, which ensures the balanced condition of the information system amid incomplete or unclear situational data. In the absence of such an illusion, the information system, in its search for balance, will shift to the mode of active selection (search) of essential data and can spot the discrepancy between a false EW situation and the real situation.

To achieve the objectives and fulfill the tasks of EW concealment and deception in the Navy, it is necessary to develop and create a new class of state of the art EW assets which should have the capability to:

* create a false image (reflection) of objects (targets) by imitating an array of their physical behavioral characteristics and connections between them that are reliably registered by situational data sensors;

* integrate into the general EW system in the form of various combinations (options) for using these assets at all stages of an operation with the inter-operability and interchangeability of models;

* lend themselves to effective command and control in surface and submerged mode either separately or as part of the general EW concealment and deception system according to a set program and by transmitting controlling signals;

* be mobile--i.e., ensure the possibility of delivering them to a combat zone by various means and have rational mass and dimension characteristics; and

* function throughout the period of preparation and conduct of an operation with the required level of reliability and have economically viable cost-effective characteristics.

NOTE:

1. Morskaya radioelektronika, No. 3 (9), 2004, pp. 4-6.

Rear Adm. Yu.V. YEFIMOV

Chief, the Navy EW Command

Capt. 1st Rank A.I. KUGUSHEV

Candidate of Technical Sciences

Capt. 1st Rank D.N. SHAKIN

Candidate of Military Sciences