thedrifter
07-09-07, 10:01 AM
Ground Troops To Get More Access To Jamming
By TRISTA TALTON, JACKSONVILLE, N.C.
A shift to put electronic warfare in the hands of Marines on the ground not only means the eventual end of the road for the EA-6B Prowler, which will stick around at least another 10 years, but the end of the U.S. Marine Corps’ single aviation electronic countermeasures platform.
Instead, the Corps wants to democratize electronic warfare, said Lt. Col. Dean Ebert, deputy branch head for aviation weapons requirement, Department of Aviation, Marine Corps headquarters.
“We’ve got kind of a holistic approach,” he said.
“Ground-based operations is what we’re focused on, and we’re trying to provide resources to that guy on the ground so that he can most effectively deliver the fires, kinetic or non-kinetic, in the right place.”
A Prowler can jam the enemy’s ground-based radar and take out surface-to-air missile stations with its own missiles, among other things. The radar-jamming jets are about 25 years old, and all four squadrons are based at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C.
While the Corps has 94 Prowlers, according to a Corps aviation reference guide, they’re not accessible to everyone on the ground.
The Corps will fix that through a combination of programs and platforms, including attaching electronic attack payloads to UAVs. As UAVs bring intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to lower levels of Marine units, more Marines will have the resources to see what’s happening as it happens on the ground.
Targeting pods on fixed-wing aircraft allow streaming video and imagery to be passed to ground stations. The video and intelligence can now be accessed by sergeants and corporals, who can use the information to make quick decisions on the ground.
The F-35B Lightning II, which will replace a number of Marine jets, has phenomenal electronic warfare capability, Ebert said. But like the Prowler, it can be accessed by a limited number of Marines. The same is true with the EA-18G Growler, a modified F/A-18F Super Hornet, which the Navy will fly as its Prowler replacement.
Marines in the field are also being introduced to CORPORAL, short for Collaborative On-line Reconnaissance Provider/ Operationally Responsive Attack Link. CORPORAL takes airborne networking and drops it to ground stations.
“We’ve kind of made this Google for the lance corporal,” Ebert said.
Using a mobile device, a squad or other leader can draw a box around a targeted area of interest, then, using a series of dropdown menus, select a function akin to streaming video to target radar.
Ebert said he expects CORPORAL to be demonstrated next year, with Marines using some elements in the next three or four years. This is good news for Marines on the ground, said Col. Robert Hostetter, II Marine Expeditionary Force innovation and technology officer at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
“In today’s world of the ‘strategic corporal,’ where small-unit leaders are making split-second decisions that have the possibility of having a strategic impact, getting situational awareness of the battlefield to the very lowest level possible is going to be a very good thing,” Hostetter said. •
E-mail: ttalton@militarytimes.com.
Ellie
By TRISTA TALTON, JACKSONVILLE, N.C.
A shift to put electronic warfare in the hands of Marines on the ground not only means the eventual end of the road for the EA-6B Prowler, which will stick around at least another 10 years, but the end of the U.S. Marine Corps’ single aviation electronic countermeasures platform.
Instead, the Corps wants to democratize electronic warfare, said Lt. Col. Dean Ebert, deputy branch head for aviation weapons requirement, Department of Aviation, Marine Corps headquarters.
“We’ve got kind of a holistic approach,” he said.
“Ground-based operations is what we’re focused on, and we’re trying to provide resources to that guy on the ground so that he can most effectively deliver the fires, kinetic or non-kinetic, in the right place.”
A Prowler can jam the enemy’s ground-based radar and take out surface-to-air missile stations with its own missiles, among other things. The radar-jamming jets are about 25 years old, and all four squadrons are based at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C.
While the Corps has 94 Prowlers, according to a Corps aviation reference guide, they’re not accessible to everyone on the ground.
The Corps will fix that through a combination of programs and platforms, including attaching electronic attack payloads to UAVs. As UAVs bring intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to lower levels of Marine units, more Marines will have the resources to see what’s happening as it happens on the ground.
Targeting pods on fixed-wing aircraft allow streaming video and imagery to be passed to ground stations. The video and intelligence can now be accessed by sergeants and corporals, who can use the information to make quick decisions on the ground.
The F-35B Lightning II, which will replace a number of Marine jets, has phenomenal electronic warfare capability, Ebert said. But like the Prowler, it can be accessed by a limited number of Marines. The same is true with the EA-18G Growler, a modified F/A-18F Super Hornet, which the Navy will fly as its Prowler replacement.
Marines in the field are also being introduced to CORPORAL, short for Collaborative On-line Reconnaissance Provider/ Operationally Responsive Attack Link. CORPORAL takes airborne networking and drops it to ground stations.
“We’ve kind of made this Google for the lance corporal,” Ebert said.
Using a mobile device, a squad or other leader can draw a box around a targeted area of interest, then, using a series of dropdown menus, select a function akin to streaming video to target radar.
Ebert said he expects CORPORAL to be demonstrated next year, with Marines using some elements in the next three or four years. This is good news for Marines on the ground, said Col. Robert Hostetter, II Marine Expeditionary Force innovation and technology officer at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
“In today’s world of the ‘strategic corporal,’ where small-unit leaders are making split-second decisions that have the possibility of having a strategic impact, getting situational awareness of the battlefield to the very lowest level possible is going to be a very good thing,” Hostetter said. •
E-mail: ttalton@militarytimes.com.
Ellie