The service started fielding the new TLS Manpack in August, but soldiers are already innovating, using the reconfigurable electronic warfare kit to identify incoming drones or scan wide areas from an aerostat.
Brig. Gen. Ed Barker gave reporters a look ahead on his fiscal 2024, 2025 and 2026 priorities.
Why edge and endpoint security can’t be an afterthought.
Brig. Gen. Ed Barker said he’s outlined a 100-day plan as he takes over the Army's program executive office for intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors.
Lockheed will build the prototype TLS-EAB system at its facility in Syracuse, NY, “in the coming months,” and the Army hopes to field the system by fiscal 2025.
The Army is progressing in its EW portfolio "after a few solid years of investment, lots of support from the Army and from [the Defense Department]," Kenneth Strayer said.
The TLS-EAB program will have five phases and total about $163 million.
Onshoring and investment in military-specific semiconductors anchor a cornerstone of the defense industrial base.
Army systems to give soldiers EW and cyber options on the battlefield are inching towards reality.
The MFEW-AL program, designed to mount a jammer on MQ-1C Grey Eagles, was one of several EW programs recently discussed by a senior Army program officer.
"So I think [the concept of integration is] so simple and yet so hard to achieve," Northrop VP Walsmith said. "You need to be able to integrate applications, whether they're your own or someone else's, with ease and simplicity. It is easy to say. It's very hard to engineer."
Decades after disbanding its Cold War electronic warfare corps, the Army is getting back in the EW game with new cyberspace and machine-learning technologies.
Standoff capability means warfighters stay connected and remain remotely located in a safer environment while making it harder for adversaries to target them.
Sun Tzu said all warfare is based on deception. Today, that means electronic deception.