Soldiers usually known for rattling off machine gun or 40mm rounds are testing a new tool that helps them “see” electronic warfare threats on the battlefield.
Soldiers with 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, recently tested software that runs the Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool at Fort Carson, Colorado, according to an Army release.
The EWPMT pulls together battlefield data and manages electronic warfare and spectrum management.
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It is a command-and-control planning tool that lets allows users to “visualize the potential effects of electronic warfare in the field and chart courses of action to prevent jammed capabilities,” according to Army Times’ sister publication, C4ISRNET.
What that means for the soldiers is a way to see the invisible threats of EW and also put out their own “non-kinetic” effects on the enemy.
“As a planner, EWPMT enabled me to visualize my effects in the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS),” said brigade CEMA head, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Brandon Cruz, in the release. “The modeling and simulation tools EWPMT provides enabled me to position Electromagnetic Warfare (EW) systems onto the optimal piece of terrain on the battlefield.”
When the unit moved from planning to operations soldiers transferred from non-lethal to lethal fires, Cruz said.
The tool is expected to see an Army decision that would distribute it across the force by early next year.
C4ISRNET previously reported that the Army was the first to demonstrate, “the ability to remotely control electronic warfare sensors through an over-the-air data link and feed the information back to a central battle management tool.”
Earlier test versions of the EWPMT were wired to the device, making for difficult field operations when compared to remote abilities.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
