Ensuring seamless and consistent use of the Electromagnetic Spectrum is fundamental to enabling the military to communicate with confidence, navigate with certainty, perceive an operational area with lucidity, and engage with accuracy during peace, crisis, or conflict.

However, the increasingly complex multi-domain environment, coupled with recent and ongoing conflicts, is making that more challenging than ever before experienced. This is having a knock-on effect for communications — this is making all of the fundamentals of warfare extremely challenging and even changes the skillsets required for military personnel in the field.

Navigating this evolving landscape requires the military to effectively make the invisible, well, visible, in order to easily gain insight and knowledge of the available spectrum and any threats to keeping the spectrum ‘clean.’ But what is the invisible and exactly how can it be made visible?

Operating In A
Multi-Domain
Environment

Warfare is no longer limited to one, or even just a couple, of domains. Land, sea, and air warfare remain critical; however, military operations now encompass cyber and space as well. Coordinating those operations across all domains can be extremely challenging and requires an enormous amount of planning and resources to ensure such is managed in a cohesive and efficient fashion. Add to that the fact that all of these environments are using the same electromagnetic spectrum, and the task at hand is not insignificant.

Since the onset of the war in the Ukraine, that spectrum has been under even more strain. Historically owned and managed by NATO, it is now highly congested and contested. It is no longer a simple question of adding a new service when needed. The congested spectrum means that it is almost impossible to ensure a high quality and safe transmission. This is making it challenging for military operations to be effective and ensure the reliability of fundamental communication, navigation, and perception needs as set out above.

The Invisible

As mentioned, part of the problem with the Electromagnetic Environment (EME) is that much is invisible, yet it remains extremely important, even vital, for all military operations. When a unit is setting out into a particular region, it is impossible to know what the EM spectrum will be like once they arrive as there are so many factors that impact the region. There are no google maps equivalent for seeing the current status of the spectrum in a given area.

There could, for example be solar storms... even wet woods... in the area, or power lines, all of which could interfere with the signal. Also challenging is determining the precise and up-to-the-minute regional weather conditions, and those conditions can have a huge, adverse impact on the radio signal. And, of course, the other big unknown is the presence of someone who may be deliberately jamming the signal.

In a conflict situation, there will most likely be other units in the same area, whether friend or foe, all using the identical spectrum. As EM spectrum becomes more and more congested, additional challenges with interference can be derived from a plethora of different sources. Not only is this difficult to predict, it is also complex to have a solid oversight of the cause in order to resolve it. And yet, in a military setting, it is more important than ever that any of these issues are resolved... and quickly.

Training the 
Next Generation
of Soldiers

These complex EM issues require a different skillset within military teams to manage them. In every part of the world, soldiers undergo extensive training which, for the most part, is centered around combat and some technology basics for use in the field.

As the environment becomes more complex, those same soldiers need to be equipped with enough knowledge to troubleshoot communications issues as they arise and to open lines back open as quickly as possible. In an envionment where there is likely little infrastructure, and often hostile conditions, and imminent threats, it can be extremely difficult to determine whether equipment is jammed, broken, or an operating error has been made.

For example, how many soldiers would know the best way to confirm if your dagger (military GPS device) is being jammed? Jamming requires line of sight. By placing the unit on the floor, or even in a hole in the ground, it might regain signal. If that action does not improve the signal condition, the problem is not jamming but something else.

It is clear that the military needs to look at adapting training to approach this new environment. As with most military training exercises, the most effective way to do this is by creating an in-field test scenario, giving soldiers as close to a real-life experience as is possible.

Using drone technology is the best way to create multiple different test scenarios for training and be able to deliver that condition elsewhere. It is then possible to simulate a connection with the satellite and a number of different scenarios, such as a how the equipment would react if there were a jammer, or how to react when the equipment itself is faulty.

By enabling that type of test scenario, teams could learn how they could quickly troubleshoot and resolve communications and navigation problems in short order, making them much better equipped once they are active in the field. 

Making the
Invivisble
Visible

Tools exist to make the invisible visible; however, the real key to being able to do that effectively is to ensure teams know exactly how to react and troubleshoot, no matter what adversity is thrown at them. Being able to easily simulate real-life scenarios for troops on the ground will make it much easier to deliver targeted training across multiple soldiers and equip the military to deal with the complexities of a multi-domain environment and an increasingly congested Electromagnetic Spectrum.
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