Sponsored by TCI International Inc.
www.tcibr.com
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10 May 22. Dr Tom Withington gave an excellent update on Russian EW activities in Ukraine. Russia sees EW as key to its armed forces and has an ‘EW Day,’ on April 15th. There are four Russian Army EW Brigades in Ukraine and one Russian Navy Unit. The Army units consist of 4 Brigades.
The results have been mixed and certainly do not reflect the advertised expertise in Russia EW tactics:
1.HF jamming has seen a lack of discipline with retaliatory jamming from amateurs.
2.VHF Jamming is stovepiped and being defeated by the use of US SINCGARS frequency hopping radios.
3.Ukraine has been targeting the GSM cellphone network by locating usage of Russian-made cellphones and then targeting the user. 9 Generals have been targeted in such a manner.
4.There is very little SATCOM disruption.
5.Because Russia has supplied much of the same equipment to Ukraine it is jamming its own equipment.
6.Ukraine has upgraded its Russian-supplied equipment with Western technology, including NATO targeting technology.
7.Russia has used the KH31 anti-radar missile.
8.Russia has been exaggerating the range of its EW equipment in export blurb. Actual ranges come it at 25% of advertised ranges.
13 May 22. ECS + TCI showed a number of products on their Stand following the purchase of ECS by TCI last year.
ECS Claw Directional Inhibitor
The Claw Directional Inhibitor is a self-contained inhibitor system that combines the RF power electronics with a high-gain multi-band directional antenna system The Claw Inhibitor comprises of dual mast-mount units covering the 433MHz, GNSS, 915MHz, 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz ISM frequency bands with RF output powers to the antennas of up to 83w. With an aggregated RF output power to the antenna of up to 150w The Claw system disrupts the control, navigation and telemetry used by UAS and can be customised for end-user requirements.
The Claw System comprises the following: Directional antenna enclosures Two SDR directional inhibitor units Either 2 AC, or 1 DC Power Supply Units.
“The combination of TCI and ECS allows the combined entity to develop systems to command the spectrum to allow the passive location and destruction of every type of drone from the errant user thru the surveillance user to the weaponized drone. We can offer our customers a range of C-UAS systems from passive RF systems thru those with an EO/IR system and radar to allow long-range location and kinetic systems to destroy weaponized drones before they reach their target. We have already identified other acquisition targets to allow SPX to offer a complete C-UAS system from one source.” Jackson White said.
ECS BlackTALON Counter-Drone System
The BlackTALON Counter-Drone System provides detection, location, identification, tracking and RF inhibition of drones. BlackTALON Model 982 incorporates Radar and RF sensors for drone detection, identification, location and tracking; an electro-optical sensor for drone verification and video tracking; and a multi-channel RF inhibitor for drone defeat.
10 May 22. UK Beefs Up EW Presence. A number of briefs during AOC Europe focussed on the new emphasis on EW for the UK with the much expected ‘EW Layer,’ now seen as a reality for Morpheus. The long-standing doctrine of ‘voice having priority over data,’ is now being ditched with Morpheus doctrine focusing on data transmissions using software defined radios controlled by computers searching and finding the right frequencies, thus avoiding enemy jamming techniques. However, other speakers described how Russia has a dedicated fleet of tracked and wheeled ERW-dedicated vehicles. A source told BATTLESPACE that the British Army is well behind in the provision of specialist EW vehicles with soldiers in the 14th, 13th and 21st Signals Regiments having to make do with antennas welded to vehicles such as the Jackal. The other key area to develop as practiced routinely by US and Russian EW forces was 24/7 Spectrum Management, with the US using the Joint Restricted Frequency list. Another area which will be addressed by the UK is the creation of a the role of Information Warfare Commander. The Royal Signals has routinely failed to get into the top echelons of the Army dominated by the Green Jackets and Guards Regiments; this was one key failure of the original Bowman Programme. In other news BATTLESPACE understands that the problems at the Morpheus programme persist with the source suggesting that Morpheus will now revert to a new title – TACIS.
12 May 22. Epiq Solutions was exhibiting at AOC Europe. Epiq Solutions develops cutting edge tools for engineering teams and government-focused organizations requiring situational awareness and detailed insight into their RF environments in order to identify and act against wireless threats.
Flying Fox® Enterprise is an innovative security solution that accurately detects, identifies, and locates wireless security threats and seamlessly integrates into any organization’s security operations. The system provides always-on, real-time, fully-passive monitoring, geolocation, alerting, recording, and logging of cellular, Bluetooth® and Wi-Fi® transmissions to support organizations’ compliance with portable electronic device (PED) policies including: DoDD 8100.02, AR 380-28 and DHS MD 11021
The Sidekiq family of products provide breakthrough small form-factor software defined radio (SDR) transceiver solutions, ready for integration into systems that support either Mini PCIe or M.2 cards. Sidekiq is based on Analog Devices’ AD9361 wideband transceiver and supports a tuning range of 70 MHz to 6 GHz. With the AD9361, RF transceiver plus programmable logic, millions of host devices (laptops, tablet computers, embedded computers, etc) can immediately be transformed into RF processing powerhouses with the addition of Sidekiq.
10 May 22. PLATH Intelligence workshop kicks off AOC Europe 2022. AOC Europe gets underway today with the return of the PLATH Intelligence Workshop, which brings together expert speakers from military, government, academia and industry to examine how critical developments in ELINT, COMINT and the Intelligence Cloud are engendering a fundamental shift in warfare tactics in the modern battlespace.
The conference will open with the Chairman’s welcome from Professor David Stupples, Professor of Electronic and Radio Systems, City University London; with the afternoon keynote address to be delivered by Mr Andreas Schwolen-Backes, CEO, PLATH.
Session 1 looks at the ELINT revival. During the past years the operational continuum for Electronic Warfare (EW) has changed tremendously. Due to vast technology advances in both military and civilian radar technologies, modern functional services for EW – across both congested and contested signal EM environments – must achieve and maintain superiority in the EM spectrum. Additionally modern sophisticated radar threats are growing in complexity, becoming frequency-agile and highly-mobile and therefore more difficult to detect, identify and analyse.
As the radar and communication signal environments converge, especially in urban and littoral areas, the technical evolution of modern ELINT systems have to adapt and evolve in order to keep up with the latest developments in highly-integrated, highly-mobile weapon systems. This session emphasizes latest technological advances and the impact on platform considerations; it will also provide an outlook on operational challenges and future drivers and trends in modern automatic intercept systems, with maximum user operability.
Session 2 focuses on COMINT, with a consideration of the new technologies, methods and opportunities that aim to increase bandwidth, security, comfort and improved operational outcomes across different platforms, use cases and multi-domain operations. Presentations will cover ‘Airborne C4ISTAR challenges in day to day missions’, ‘COMINT inside UAV’, and ‘Innovative sensor technology for the protection of armoured vehicles’.
The session will be complemented by addressing new COMINT possibilities and requirements which result from human factors and the technological development of mobile phones; and the additional tactical benefits they offer military operations.
Session 3 will address the Evolution of the Intelligence Domain. The need for data, the extrapolation of intelligence and the growing use of the commercial cloud for information sharing all pose their own challenges to managing effective intelligence operations. Add to this the complication of intelligence units largely operating with locked data silos, partially networked systems and inhomogeneous data models; there are many difficulties and limitations to overcome in this domain. This session considers the challenges, and asks what the promising ways to solve them may be, culminating in a panel discussion to close the conference.
PLATH is an international supplier of high-performance software and integrated systems for data-driven crisis prevention. The portfolio covers the entire reconnaissance cycle and has proven its worth in operations worldwide. It is a family-run company, a member of the PLATH Group and helps customers to fulfil their security assignments.
10 May 22. Saab’s Sirius Compact Offers New Flexibility for EW Users. Saab unveils Sirius Compact – a lightweight electronic warfare passive sensor to meet surveillance challenges across all levels of tactical operations by locating threats while remaining undetected. Sirius Compact brings new capabilities thanks to its low size, weight and power, particularly in comparison to equivalent larger static solutions. Because it can easily be integrated to drones, vehicles, vessels, masts or man-portable applications, users can rapidly deploy the system and scale its coverage as the situation demands.
“Operations in the electromagnetic spectrum of a modern battlefield are a constantly evolving challenge. The need to remain undetected, while deploying with discretion and agility has been at the forefront of the development of Sirius Compact,” says Carl-Johan Bergholm, head of Saab´s business area Surveillance.
Sirius Compact is modular, scalable and can be used stand-alone, in a network of sensors or as a complement to existing sensors. By enhancing situational awareness through silent detection, classification and prioritisation of radar and datalink emissions, it is also a force-multiplier enabling users to locate threats whilst remaining undetected. Autonomous operation enables assimilation and compilation of situational awareness information without the need to store sensitive data in the sensor.
Development and production of Sirius Compact is shared between Saab in Sweden and Finland, in line with Saab’s strategy to further strengthen its domestic presence on selected markets outside of Sweden.
Saab will showcase Sirius Compact at the AOC Europe conference in Montpellier in France 10-12 May and at Eurosatory in Paris 13-17 June.
Learn more about Sirius Compact: www.saab.com/electronicwarfare
07 May 22. Filtronic showed aerospace and defence products and manufacturing services at AOC Europe. Filtronic plc, FTC, the designer and manufacturer of RF-to-mmWave components and subsystems, exhibited its range of advanced components and subsystems for the aerospace and defence industry on Stand E1 at the AOC Europe event in Montpelier, France, on 10 – 12 May 2022.
Filtronic designs and manufactures RF, microwave and mmWave products that find use in a wide range of defence applications. Use cases include fire control, target acquisition and high-resolution imaging in Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar; Electronic Warfare (EW) and Electronic Countermeasures (ECM).
Filtronic products on show at the AOC Europe event will include the recently released Cerus range of E-band power amplifiers. Also on display will be transmit and receive modules (TRMs), front-end modules, filters and other RF components and subsystems for aerospace and defence applications. Furthermore, Filtronic offers contract manufacturing services for secure programmes, producing and testing their designs at scale to individual specifications in its state-of-the-art ISO 9001 and ISO 14001-certified facilities at Sedgefield in the UK. (Source: Google/https://www.benzinga.com/)
10 May 22. RAFAEL Showcasing C-GEM at AOC 2022 After Successful Live Fire Test of Naval System on Israeli Navy Saar 6 Corvette.
Earlier this year, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems alongside the Israeli Navy and Ministry of Defense Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D) successfully completed a series of tests on Rafael’s C-GEM naval system.
C-GEM is an innovative shipborne off-board RF Active Decoy (RFAD) system protecting naval vessels from anti-ship missiles through electromagnetic spectrum manipulation. C-GEM jams and deceives threats from multiple directions, independent of ship maneuvers.
RAFAEL is participating in the AOC 2022 exhibition in Montpellier where they will be showcasing the C-GEM Decoy, along with the following systems:
SEWS-DV: an integrated EW suite intended for operation in a dense electromagnetic environment. SEWS-DV includes highly sensitive digital receivers and high power AESA jammers, assuring spectrum dominance and survivability in the most hostile scenarios.
SKY-SHIELD: an electronic attack pod, intended for escort jamming and suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) missions. SKY-SHIELD provides air superiority and allows penetration of the most advanced integrated air defence systems by simultaneously deceiving and jamming multiple enemy radars.
X-GUARD: a cutting edge supersonic towed-decoy designed for defeating advanced tracking radars. Towed behind the fighter aircraft, X-GUARD is deployable and retractable mid-flight.
DRONE-DOME Counter-UAS system: an end-to-end solution that secures airspace against hostile drones. DRONE-DOME is capable of identifying unknown targets, generating alerts and operating without causing interference to non-target airborne assets by utilizing smart jammer bandwidth allocations.
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TCI International, Inc., is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SPX Corporation. TCI provides turn-key solutions for spectrum management and monitoring, direction finding, geolocation and communications intelligence to civilian, government, military and intelligence agencies as well as antennas for communications and high-power radio broadcasting. TCI is headquartered in Fremont, California, USA. For more information, visit www.tcibr.com.
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