7CSR COVID-19 Assist
At 72 hours’ notice to move, Brisbane’s 7th Combat Brigade prepared to deploy a taskforce of 35 soldiers to three vehicle checkpoints (VCP) along the Queensland/New South Wales border to support the Queensland Police Service’s COVID-19 efforts in restricting non-essential travelers entering the state.
This is the second instance the 7th Combat Brigade has been called upon to assist Queensland Police Service at the border. Prior to departure, Brigade Commander Brigadier Jason Blain gave encouraging words, reinforcing the importance of this kind of service to the Australian community,
“This is a noble job for us to do, and it’s a role we must do. We are here to protect the nation and that’s not just about how we conduct warfighting, or defeat our enemies, but also how we protect our community.”
Bringing members from the ADF to these remote towns not only aids police at the border, but it also contributes financially to the communities which have faced challenges of drought, compulsory water buy-backs, and ongoing disruption to tourism due to closed borders.
Signaller Logan Tunbridge, a 7th Combat Signal Regiment (CSR) member located at the Hebel VCP, commended Queensland Police and his fellow soldiers for their efforts in support of keeping the rural community Covid-free, “I come from a remote town in New South Wales, so it feels good to help out another rural town. I feel connected to the cause.” It also provides the opportunity for the ADF to meet personalities that are unique to the country. Sophie Matterson (photograph below), a footloose cross-country walker from Shark Bay, WA journeying with five camels in tow, visited the border town of Hebel before continuing her 5,000km trek eastward to Byron Bay, NSW. With her arrival saw dozens of spectators at the town centre. This is no small feat considering the town has a population of 67.
ADF personnel located at the Barringun VCP spent their off-shift hours engaging and playing sports with the town locals. The friendly, approachable and inclusive way ADF personnel conduct themselves in a public arena resounds the words of Brigadier Blain, creates a safe presence and contributes positively to the overall image Army creates amongst the national community.
In conjunction to the border task, members of 3 and 6 Brigade, The Royal Australian Navy and The Royal Australian Air Force also prepared at short notice to support the operation by ensuring individuals in hotel quarantine comply with state laws and Queensland public health directions.
A New National Structure for 8th Signal Regiment
On the 18th January 2021, The 8th Signal Regiment (8 SIG REGT) was established as a National Signal Regiment within the Army Order of Battle.
The Regiment is now comprised of six Signal Squadrons and an Operational Support Squadron and has over 600 officers and soldiers, predominately from the Army Reserve.
8th Signal Regiment has the Regimental Headquarters located in Randwick Sydney and has squadrons located across Australia. The Squadron locations are 141 Signal Squadron in Brisbane and Townsville Queensland, 142 Signal Squadron Sydney NSW, 143 Signal Squadron ACT, 144 Signal Squadron Adelaide South Australia and Tasmania, 108 Signal Squadron in Melbourne Victoria and 109 Signal Squadron in Perth Western Australia. Whilst the Squadrons are now under the command of 8th Signal Regiment, they are responsible for providing direct support to Reserve Brigades located within their respective states and territories.
“The mission of 8th Signal Regiment is to provide CIS support and advice to the 2nd Division in support of Force Generation activities and Contingency Force Elements, additionally, 8th Signal Regiment will provide individual and detachment level reinforcement to Regular Army Units,”
The 2nd Division is responsible for providing Reinforcing Effects in support of foundation warfighting, CIS support to domestic disaster relief and CIS support to domestic security. 8th Signal Regiment provides CIS support to all aspects of these tasks. The role that the 2nd Division performs in reinforcing the Joint Force can be traced by to WWI where the 2nd Division was the reinforcing division onto the Gallipoli peninsula and at that time was supported by 2 Div Signal Company.
In the last 12 months, the Regiment has performed the reinforcing effects role by providing signallers as part of overseas operations in the Middle East, International Engagement in the South West Pacific and supporting 3 CSR on TS 21. Concurrently the Regiment has and provided specialist CIS effects in support of domestic operations including OP BUSHFIRE ASSIST, FLOOD ASSIST, CYCLONE SEROJA and the COVID Task Force.
Operation BUSHFIRE ASSIST – South Australia 2020
Major Erica Abend J6 JTF1111/OC 144 Sig Sqn
The 4th of January 2020 saw the compulsory Call Out of Army Reserves for the first time in Australia’s history, under section 28 of the Defence Act 1903. Members of the 144th Signal Squadron rapidly responded to the Call Out, leaving behind family holidays (a number returning from interstate and overseas) work commitments and others arriving to deploy on the Operation immediately after returning from their BALCOMBE SPIRIT initial trade courses in Melbourne.
A Communications Control Group was subsequently established on Keswick Barracks at the 144th Signal Squadron Headquarters. Detachments were rapidly deployed into the Adelaide Hills to support the 16th Regiment Emergency Support Force and onto Kangaroo Island to support the Joint Task Force 1111 Tactical Headquarters, the 10th/27th Emergency Support Force, the 1st Armoured Regiment Emergency Support Force and the 9th Emergency Support Force.
Initially, 144th Signal Squadron did not hold sufficient personnel or equipment for the scope of the task in South Australia and therefore would need supplementation; after a quick analysis of probable tasks for the Squadron, support was acquired by JOC at the time. Within days the Squadron evolved into Joint Task Force 1111 Communications Information Systems, supplemented by communicators arriving from external units. Unit nodes from the 1st Signal Regiment and the 1st Combat Communications Squadron (Amberley Flight) shared a Hercules arriving into RAAF Base Edinburgh, before driving across to Keswick to join the 144th Signal Squadron to achieve our mission.
Additional reinforcements continued to arrive over the next week from the 1st Combat Signal Regiment, the 3rd Combat Signal Regiment, the 8th Signal Regiment, the 109th Signal Squadron, the 145th Signal Squadron, the 16th Regiment and the 1st Combat Communications Squadron (Williamstown and Edinburgh flights). This disparate group of communicators were a combination of full-time and part-time, Army and Air Force, experienced and inexperienced (some in the first weeks of employment in their first posting!) rapidly forming a cohesive and agile team.
Joint Task Force 1111 Communications Information Systems members provided vital communications planning, advice, and support throughout OPERATION BUSHFIRE ASSIST in South Australia, many being exposed to a variety of hazards in the local communities they supported. Members exhibited an outcome-focused mindset and a high degree of mental agility, consistently alert to the rapidly changing situation and being prepared to respond appropriately, often before orders were received. Everyone remained alert to opportunities to strengthen and improve information flows in a highly changeable environment, with the added complexities of the interoperability challenges between civilian emergency services agencies and the Australian Defence Force in often austere environments. Due to the complexities of tasks, creative planning and clear direction and communication to all levels of command within 144 Sig Sqn was required to meet strategic intent.
Given OPERATION BUSHFIRE ASSIST was the Main Effort for the Australian Defence Force, there was a significant disruption to the regular training program. The 144th Signal Squadron took every opportunity throughout the Operation to develop all assigned team members: developing and maintaining trade competencies, mentoring new joiners, and rotating communicators between locations to maximise the experience and skills they were collectively gaining. A strong bond forged between the Army and Air Force communicators, who shared their tradecraft and learned from each other; an excellent opportunity to think from a Joint Communications point of view and match assets to task, from planning to the provision of communications on the ground. Ultimately OPERATION BUSHFIRE ASSIST provided an outstanding opportunity to develop our people, to refine the focus of training, to continue innovating to meet rapidly changing Operational needs, and cement the strong bonds between communicators from all services, whilst enhancing the capability and reputation of the Army Reserve.
Life as a Reserve Signaller
Sig Egan, 108 Sig Sqn
My role as a Reserve Signaller has always been an important and personally rewarding endeavour for me. Although, the events in the preceding few years, namely that of the bushfires throughout Australia and the ongoing pandemic, have allowed me to engage with this role in a markedly more community-focused manner.
I have been employed in the Army Reserves as a Telecommunications Technician with 108 Signals Squadron since 2012. Throughout this time, I have participated in a wide array of training in both the barracks and field environment, with the intent of further developing the specific skills of my signals trade and broader military skills. However, the unprecedented events above resulted in the first time these skills were required outside the training environment.
In early January of 2020, my unit was called up as part of the Reserve wide callout to assist with the devastating bushfires ravaging many parts of the country. As part of OPERATION Bushfire Assist 20, initially, I was sent to Bairnsdale, where I spent nearly a month based at a local high school. From here, we provided signals support to other units, including the engineers from 22 ER, to assist with clearing pivotal roads of dangerous trees. While in Bairnsdale, I was also able to speak directly to several residents who had large parts of their properties destroyed and, in many cases, came very close to personal harm. Witnessing their resilience and defiantly stoic response in the face of traumatic adversity was a significantly bright spot in otherwise quite literally dark surroundings.
I then spent an additional month further east in the town of Orbost, based at the local footy club. Throughout this stretch, the adjacent town of Marlo was evacuated to our position in Orbost. I was able to work closely with many members of the Fijian Defence Force, we staged an open day at our position for the local community, and I was able to go with an Army Chaplain to a local primary school and speak to the children there. Additionally, when the Fijian Chief of Defence Force flew into Victoria, I was attached as the SIG to his motorcade. He toured the different areas where his troops were providing assistance.
Not long after these events, the COVID pandemic hit Australia, and again the ADF was called upon to play a chief role in the country’s response. Accordingly, I decided to take a break from my civilian studies in psychology and worked full time with the Army for eight months as part of OPERATION COVID-19 Assist. I was tasked with providing communications and information systems support to the Joint Task Group in Victoria. This brought with it an array of challenges including, the rapid establishment of a Joint Operations Room, liaising with hotel IT staff to help engineer robust and secure communications for commanders on the ground, and the tracking and distribution of communications equipment across the numerous positions throughout Victoria.
Considering the experiences outlined above, the rapid pace with which new equipment is developed and integrated into the corps, and the increased willingness for government to utilise the Reserve Force on domestic taskings, it is an exciting time as a Reserve Signaller – and potentially an immensely rewarding one.
Reflections of a RASIGS Officer on Afghanistan
MAJ S. Cirakovic
This article is my own reflections on one of the most difficult years of service I have faced in my 11 year career to date. I write it for RASIGS officers and soldiers in the first instance, but hope it will resonate with all service men and women who read it. In saying this, I will not be focussing on communications, I will be focusing on lessons I have learnt about being a soldier in general.
Deploying… you’re not deployed until you are off the plane, and then it won’t be what you prepared for.
In 2020 I had the privilege of deploying in the J6 Advisor role for the Kabul Joint Command Advisor Team 7 (KJC-AT7). Our initial deployment was due to depart in April which coincided with the initial peak of the COVID-19 outbreak, causing significant chaos for our team. Initially the team was 11 personnel from the ranks of Major – Colonel from across a broad range of Corps and backgrounds to fulfil advisor roles across all staff functions. Due to COVID, this was quickly reduced to six personnel, one for each key branch and the Commander. After significant flux, we deployed only a week late and spent a glorious two weeks in quarantine in AMAB before completing RSO&I and infill into Kabul.
“The Fight will come to you”
BRIG Jason Blain, DSC, CSC, Commander 7 Combat Brigade. Keynote speech to the 2021 RASIGS Corps Conference.
So, after a week, our initial 11 man team was now down to five. Due to this, I was required to step up and fulfil the J3 Advisor role for approximately the first month and a half in addition to my role as the J6 Advisor. While this was occurring, I was also trying to meet my counterpart, the J6 for KJC (ANA LTCOL) who had taken leave to return to Nangahar Province during our HOTO week. I had successfully managed to organise our first meeting during our first week on the job and was looking forward to meeting him. But in true Afghan fashion, disaster struck again. The morning we had planned to meet my counterpart was travelling to work with another colonel when the Taliban conducted a targeted assassination attempt on their vehicle, killing the other colonel and seriously wounding my counterpart. Thankfully, he survived, however suffered serious gun shot wounds as well as a number of broken bones and dislocations as a result of the subsequent car crash.
Here I was. My first week on the job during my second tour of Afghanistan, filling both the J3 and J6 Advisor role, with no organisation remaining to support and my only direct counterpart in hospital.
My Vignettes… The defining moments of my second tour in Afghanistan.
Despite the rough start, things did improve. After a couple of hard weeks, we managed to secure a HQ for the KJC to operate from, started to see the ANA and ANP fill the organisations roster, gained support from senior Afghan leaders, and I started to work with a ANA LT who stepped up to fill the J6 role. After a rough start, we finally started to gain momentum. I won’t labour on the narrative much longer. It will take too long to describe an 8 month tour. As anyone who has deployed will know, a tour is patches of boredom interspersed with periods of intense workloads, of which this was no different. Instead, I would like to highlight a couple more key moments in my tour.
The first was during the opening ceremony of the new headquarters building for the KJC. Due to the support from senior ANA and ANP leadership, this event was attended by a significant number of senior Afghan officers, which also meant their Personal Security Detachments (PSD). Once the initial ribbon cutting was over, the Afghan officers rushed into the building to conduct tours and speeches, followed by some of the advisor team members as representatives of the coalition. Thankfully I was able to avoid going into the packed room of Afghan soldiers, primarily due to COVID concerns. But this left me standing in the hallway, with only my sidearm on my hip and a Guardian Angel (GA) next to me, looking at a young Afghan who was part of the ANA PSD team sporting an AK-74. This young man was very nervous and looked extremely unpredictable. Normally, this would not be a big deal, but this particular young man was watching me and the GA intensely while fingering the trigger of his weapon. We were lucky in this instance, with no incident occurring, but the tension and stress was very real and brought the threat to the forefront of our mind if it wasn’t already.
The second was the Afghan Independence day on 19 Aug. As a key public holiday it was considered a likely time for attacks by insurgents to occur, and as such the KJC had planned to deploy a forward headquarters to coordinate security across Kabul. The decision was made that some of the KJC-AT7 team would deploy into the city to support this effort which saw myself, my COMD and one of the two new J3 Advisors deploy to an old Afghan fort south of the green zone called Balar Hisar. This mission was supported by an excellent UK force protection team who took us out in their Foxhounds (UK PMV) for the day and worked extremely hard to enable our advisor mission. Less than an hour after arriving at Balar Hisar, while sitting in the shade under a tree as we talked to our counterparts, myself and the J3 advisor shared a look. This look came as we both heard a whistling sound passing overhead. The assessment of the threat for the day was accurate. Seconds after hearing the whistle, explosions went off nearby, within a couple hundred metres from where we sat. To spare the details, we hit the deck, quickly moved back to the Foxhounds, and hunkered down until the rockets stopped landing. We continued the mission once the threat had passed, spending the day at the fort trying to assist the KJC secure the city.
The third is not a single event, but rather a series of events. After about 5 months my J6 ANA counterpart (the one injured in an assassination attempt) asked for help in getting surgery to repair the injuries he had received. During the car crash, his shoulder had been broken and dislocated, and the Afghan medical system was unable to treat this so had left it in this state. Reaching out to our amazing medical staff in country (both Australian and coalition), I was able to organise access onto the coalition base at the Kabul international airport so my counterpart could receive treatment. This was conducted over several months and involved several visits for assessments, surgeries, and post-surgery check-ups. Long story short, my counterpart would never be able to use his arm fully again, but the surgery had reduced the debilitating pain he was in and improved his quality of life.
The point… Every good story has one, sometimes you just need to dig to find it.
If you have managed to make it this far you are probably wondering what my point is in telling this story. The answer to this is two-fold. First, I will redirect your attention to the opening quote by BRIG Blain. The fight will come to you is what he said to the Corps. Many times through my career I have heard people say things along the line of “if I need to shoot my weapon, things are really bad”. While true, things are always bad if you have to fire your weapon, it is also misleading and undermining our combat mindset as soldiers. As an RASIGS Major, many would say that this saying applied to me, but that has not been the case as I have tried to highlight in my first two vignettes. Everyone needs to be ready to fight, because the fight will come to you.
Second, as I write this the ADF is currently supporting NEO tasks in Kabul. The withdrawal has been particularly hard on many veterans, myself included noting the temporal proximity of my second deployment in Afghanistan. Like many others, I have been left wondering what the point of the conflict and the sacrifice of so many service men and women was. This is why I shared my third vignette. We all had a positive impact, whether we recognise that or not. The proudest part of my 11 years of service is helping my J6 counterpart receive surgery so he could continue to enjoy his life with his children. He sent me pictures of his children after the surgery with tears in their eyes because it was the first time in almost half a year that they had seen their father without pain. I challenge all the veterans to find the moments in your deployments where you made a difference, because you did, regardless of the final outcome.
The end… At least until the next conflict.
In finishing this article, my only hope is that it has challenged you the reader to think about what your service means and to help prepare us all for the future challenges we will face, both on the battlefield and beyond. Every conflict is different, and everyone who serves in these conflicts faces different challenges. In choosing to serve, we choose to face these challenges on an individual level, but always need to remember that we are all part of the same team. I still speak to my team members from this tour regularly, and whether they know it or not, they have helped me come to terms with the challenges I faced, both while deployed and since returning home. Reach out to your mates, talk to them, share your stories, and become stronger together.
Joint Warfighting Assessment 2021
Can the Signals Planning Process come to the table for our current fight?
LT Barker
In June 2021, members of the 7th Combat Signal Regiment (7 CSR) had the opportunity to test and validate the Signals Planning Process (SPP) alongside our Coalition partners USA, UK, and Canada in a joint operating environment at Fort Carson, Colorado, USA. The Command Post exercise (CPX) introduced a current and dynamic threat that was able to decisively challenge our planning team, ultimately providing a learning experience for everyone. The Australian contingent was constructed of a generic BDE level footprint comprising of HQ FWD, HQ Main, BG HQ, and our Network Operations Security Cell (NOSC). This exercise allowed an opportunity to challenge our Signals planning team with complex future-proof planning serials. The team included a combination of specialities coming from CAPT Michelle Prior, CAPT Peter Gauvin, LT Aiden Barker, LT William Dudley-Bateman, WO2 Wayne Mulhall, and WO2 Tom Somers.
The planning team from 7 CSR entered JWA 21 with pre-established lines of effort in order to gain the most from this experience. One was to test and validate the currency of the SPP in conjunction with current doctrine and SOP’s. These included the LWD 6-0 Signals, LWD 6-1 Employment of Signals, and the DFSS CATW Battle Book Version 4.0. These were validated against near-peer and peer threats over 14 different courses of action and over 200 hours of planning. Opportunities to both succeed and fail created robust discussion and direction for key fixes, improves, and sustains over various aspects of our Corps’ doctrine. We identified two potential areas where our planning team, and our wider Corps, must invest and review resources into future planning. The first is by adopting our arms corps brethren’s method of war-gaming, and the second to both educate and enable our war fighters to successfully synchronise effects across both information and land domains, through mission profiles and threat focused Emission Control (EMCON).
War-gaming within the SPP doctrine is both broad and general. While this can enable planners’ flexibility to test their plan within time constraints, there should be more guidance on how C4 planners can deliberately, and effectively, provide the best advice for their commander. The 7 CSR planning team tested multiple deliberate war-games within major planning cycles, utilising both a box and a force element-based method. This greatly enhanced the C4 contribution to the commander’s plan. For example, we began with a scenario-based start-state, followed by targeting key events and forces like HQ, Retransmission (RTX) nodes, and supporting elements. In some instances the C4 war-games continued for over three hours, which saw the C4 planning team postured to participate in the BDE level war-game. While constraints and limitations do not always allow planners this time to war-game, it was evident on JWA 21 that this step of the SPP is crucial to developing a robust C4 plan.
Current EMCON procedures have two key issues. Firstly, they can be too prescriptive, not allowing commanders the ability to effectively navigate the information domain within each mission profile. This restricts the commander’s flexibility (one of the principles of war) to make agile C2 decisions based on an immediate threat environment. On the other hand, they can be too generic and may jeopardise force elements not postured to adapt or overcome an adversaries C4 dominance. Where is the middle ground? The planning team, coupled with the support of our CO, LTCOL Michael King, were able to develop a method of EMCON that is dependant to both threat and risk within a mission profile. We shifted our language from complex EMCON procedures to that of Signature Control. Commanders were given the education to manipulate their C4 signature to effectively fight in a multi-domain environment. What we observed was an EMCON behaviour that was able to evolve throughout mission profiles. What is usually the misunderstood or misinterpreted ‘magic’ of C4 slowly became an instinctive combat behaviour and consideration for both war fighters and commanders alike.
While I have spoken to two key C4 concepts from JWA 21, there were many more identified for further analysis. However, the deliberate war-gaming conducted through a C4 lens was instrumental in delivering a robust and adaptable plan to the BDE planning team. I would also offer to our Corps that the culture of EMCON should be rebranded to that of Signature Control. This will help shape our Corps’ notion and education of EMCON, greatly reinforcing the necessity to align combat vernacular between Signals and the arms corps. Overall, JWA 21 provided an excellent opportunity to see an active C4 approach to the validation of Corps doctrine and SOP’s, in order to Enable, Defend, Deceive, and sometimes Enjoy, in support of the premier BDE of the Australian Army; the 7th Combat Brigade.
Cyber Quest 2021
MAJ B. Pye, Cyber Battle Lab Australian Exchange officer and Senior Military Project Officer
Cyber Quest is an annual US Army Futures Command (AFC) prototyping experiment, aligning industry research and development to US Army capability development. It explores industry innovations which inform US Army Cyber, Electronic Warfare (EW), Networks and Services (N&S), and Tactical Radio (TR) Capability Managers (ACM) and the AFC’s Network Cross Functional Team on viable technology solutions as they develop capability requirement documents. It also identifies mature technologies for rapid acquisition and follow on experimentation activities including Project Convergence[1] and Multi Domain Operations – Live[2].
In addition to straight experimentation on the vendor technologies against the ACM learning objectives, Cyber Quest also involves an experimentation force (EXFOR) based on a Brigade Combat Team (BCT) HQ drawn from across the US Army’s units. This EXFOR provides contemporary-tactical-soldier qualitative user feedback, assessing the experimental software and tools by putting them through their paces on the Cyber Battle Lab’s (CBL) bespoke, air-gapped, UNCLASSIFIED-but-notionally-SECRET network, within the context of a simulated near-peer high end warfighting scenario. This two week event is located at the Cyber Center of Excellence, Fort Gordon, Georgia, and planned and coordinated by the CBL’s British and Australian Exchange Officers on alternating years.
Cyber Quest 2021 was the sixth iteration of the event. For the first time, this year’s Cyber Quest was aligned and integrated with the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment (AEWE)[3], the US Army’s Company-and-below manoeuvre live experimentation event, which is run by the Maneuver Battle Lab at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Cyber Quest 2021’s alignment with AEWE enabled integrated manoeuvre and Cyberspace-Electromagnetic Activity (CEMA) capability development to provide commanders’ with the tools and capabilities to understand and exploit their cross-domain battlespace, enhancing their mission effectiveness.
Fort Benning – Company and below
In more practical terms, this saw Cyber Quest 2021’s EW and TR capabilities embedded within the AEWE 2021’s EXFOR – which included American, Dutch, and British forces – providing EW and TR experimental capabilities at sub-unit level and below. This teaming enabled small team maneuver, increased situational awareness, operational tempo, lethality and overmatch, and heavily informed warfighter battlefield decisions.
Unit leaders were able to successfully employ the EW teams and their experimental capabilities to queue tactical unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for target validation, facilitate fires processes, and inform commander Priority Intelligence Requirements during the assessment. The use of distributed feeds from tactical UAS coupled with EW provided a marked increase in situational awareness, enabling the ground force commander to set conditions out of contact, and eliminating the enemy’s element of initiative and surprise.
[1] Project Convergence is as a campaign of learning, designed to create interoperability between all elements of the Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control using new networks and artificial intelligence algorithms to support warfighters, based around a continuous, structured series of demonstrations and experiments.
[2] Multi Domain Operations – Live is an exercise which support the Intelligence, Information, Cyber, Electronic Warfare and Space (I2CEWS) detachment of the Multi-Domain Task Force as part of the larger Defender Pacific exercise. The event provides a non-kinetic environment in which the I2CEWS battalion can perform the sensing, targeting and delivery of effects.
[3] AEWE is the US Army’s primary venue for Company and below experimentation. It supports small unit modernisation by providing Cross Function Teams, Centers of Excellence capability developers, Science and Technology community, and industry a repeatable, credible, and rigorous operational venue supporting both concept and materiel development.
Fort Gordon – Brigade and above
After a week of experimentation and EXFOR training, the technologies at the BCT level were put through their paces in a Decisive Action Training Environment – Pacific[1] scenario. This involved both offensive and defensive operations and required the integration of virtual and simulated fires, manoeuver, and cyber effects in Multi Domain Operations (MDO).
In addition to the various cyber and N&S vendor technologies, the EXFOR were trained and fought on the new in-service (but not widely available) Command Post Computing Environment (CPCE) and EW Planning and Management Tool (EWPMT). The latter received both the live Electronic Support (ES) and Electronic Attack (EA) feeds from the AEWE activities at Fort Benning, as well as seamlessly integrated virtual feeds from a prototype EWPMT plugin. This enabled a more realistic EW picture and produced a congested and contested electromagnetic environment for the BCT CEMA Cell to engage with and experiment within, all at the UNCLASSIFIED level.
Another success story was the Cyber Situational Understanding (Cyber SU) software. Cyber SU collates information into dashboards to help key staff and the commander to assess how events in cyberspace and the electromagnetic environment impact their current missions across all domains, or put their future missions at risk. This software was originally trialed at Cyber Quest in 2019 and the knowledge the company gained from that event allowed them to better tailor their capability to warfighter needs and later be selected to develop the tool for the US Army.
These various HQ, EW and cyber tools all enabled the BCT commander to visualise themself and their forces in the virtual to be more effective and lethal in the physical domain.
Finally, for the second year in a row, Cyber Quest 2021 enabled other AFC Capabilities Development and Integration Directorates to leverage the event for their own experimentation needs. The Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) have developed their remote telemedicine capability in partnership with the CBL, who have, in turn, informed development of the networking constraints.
[1] The Decisive Action Training Environment is a program that uses current intelligence to create intense, authentic training scenarios derived from actual threats across the US Army’s Operational Environment, focused on ground operations requiring a brigade-size unit and the expected mission essential tasks. These have been developed for Africa, the Caucasus, Europe and the Pacific.
The future
While each Cyber Quest’s ACM derived learning objectives, vendors, and technologies are different, the success of Cyber Quest 2021 has guaranteed that future iterations will look to further integrate the planning and execution of Cyber Quest with AEWE. This will enable the development of MDO derived learning objectives, and the conduct of experimentation on technologies and concepts from the tactical user through to echelons above brigade.
In a similar fashion to how AEWE have contributing EXFOR elements from other nations, both the TATRC and CBL leadership expressed a strong desire to have Australian forces participate in future iterations of the Cyber Quest activity, starting from March 2022.
Vendor technologies assessed on Cyber Quest 2021
Below are the technologies that were assessed across the various capabilities on Cyber Quest 2021 with their advertised abilities. Note: This is not an endorsement of any of these vendors or capabilities, and performance under experimentation did not always match the description, nor prove effective in a military environment.
ELECTRONIC WARFARE
K1000 Ultra Long Endurance UAV (“K1000ULE”) with ES/EW Capabilities:
‐ Persistent Group‐1 Ultra Long Endurance UAV, fully electric and resilient to EW attack
‐ Operational in Global Positioning System (GPS) denied and Anti Access/Area Denial environments
‐ Two‐person operational team, fully autonomous
‐ 1MHz ‐ 66GHz RX/TX, full ES, Jamming, Attack, Survey
‐ Cellular Peer Group Leader, Tactical Long Term Evolution, Cellular/Spectrum Survey
‐ Electronic Suppression and Kinetic Attack on Radio Frequency (RF) emitting devices, radar systems, GPS jamming systems
Mastodon Tactical EW System: Kraken, Beast & Beast+ dismount and man-pack systems provide signal detection, collection, direction finding, and in‐protocol (cyber) attacks on digital radio technologies in the 30 MHz – 6 GHz spectrum. Addresses Army EW Platoon need for low‐Size Weight and Power (SWaP) ES/EA modular system.
VIAVI Solutions Ranger Platform – Electromagnetic Spectrum Deception: In an ES Deception environment, the system can be used to monitor the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) to determine Signals of Interest (SOI), evaluate the SOIs for relevance, perform narrow/wide bandwidth recording, and playback recorded or synthetic recordings to deceive the adversary into believing the signals are coming from a decoy maneuver element or from an element that is smaller than it is portrayed to be.
The system can also monitor the tactical edge to determine the emissions emanating from both friendly and adversary forces to determine what signals are required to playback for deception.
Social Media Environment and Internet Replication (SMEIR) –Radio Frequency (RF) Extension: The SMEIR‐RF extension provides a platform for the automated delivery of military information support operations (MISO) RF transmissions. It is applicable to EW, specifically the Information Warfare (IW) Focus Area. The extension is used to release prerecorded MISO messaging on a schedule or as needed basis for training exercises. Automating delivery of RF messaging reduces the personnel requirements for MISO, Signals Intelligence, and EW training courses and exercises. The Extension is interoperable with our closed loop internet replication and IW range, SMEIR.
Spectrum Guard Elite: Portable, lightweight, networkable (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, User Datagram Protocol), ruggedized RF collection platform used to sample, characterize, and analyze the RF environment from 1kHz –26.5 GHz. The sensor detects emitters in saturated RF environments, provides content discovery, and permits monitoring of specified signals of interest. Spectrum Guard Elite gives commanders the ability to observe, characterize, and visualize the electromagnetic environment to manage their own signature, identify adversary emitters, and prioritize targets.
CYBER
Defensive Cyber Operations
AttackIQ: The market leading breach and attack simulation platform. These capabilities allows the warfighter to operationalize known adversary Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures codified through the Mitre ATT&CK framework allowing for safe and effective emulative tests. Operators are able to validate the efficacy of the security stack by executing common behaviors an attacker would. The tool has a library of 2k+ curated known attacker scenarios fully exposed in python and open to customize. The application interface is also fully exposed to integrate with operational workflow platforms and security control technologies.
Keysight Threat Simulator Integrated with Army Endpoint Security Solution (AESS): Threat Simulator is a breach and attack simulation platform that executes cyber attacks using the complete kill chain on production or target networks. The system is designed to be fully automated testing boundary to endpoint, actively hunting for venues to exploit networks, especially those created by human error, failure to patch, improper configuration, and failure to plan mitigations. Integration with the existing AESS provides automated remediation, threat correlation and protections resulting in a self‐healing resilient network.
Offensive Cyber Operations
Accenture Federal Services Muddler: The Muddler toolkit meets a critical operational requirement by providing signature diversity at the edge, enabling the employment of multiple tools in a way that effectively obscures and protects critical mission capabilities. This toolkit uniquely enables commonality and interoperability at the core and maximizes operational flexibility by being mission and authorities agnostic.
TACTICAL RADIO
Shadowcat Radios and Protected Waveform: Low SWaP‐C Commercial Off The Shelf‐based Shadowcat mounted and dismount radios and a protected waveform with low probability of interception/ low probability of detection (LPI/LPD), anti-jamming and beamforming resilience. The capability addresses the Army requirement for allowing the Warfighter to communicate with detached squad members, between teams, and to a separated parent vehicle rapidly over short distances during poor visibility or in restrictive terrain in a manner which reduces vulnerability to enemy interception/detection and which is operable in congested/contested environments.
IOT/AI TAK‐X: Modular, tactical communications and sensor integration system that reduces RF, electronic, and size signatures typically associated with war fighter operating at the tactical edge of the battlespace. TAK‐X is unmatched in SWaP‐C (~1w,~7oz) when considering the level of sophisticated mesh wide LPI/LPD services provided for sensors, communications, Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK), and AI/ML. The hybrid system provides tactical communications support at extremely low signature levels, distributed AI/ML without cloud dependencies, sensor integration, GPS denied PNT (with GPS anti‐spoofing), and hyper resilient ATAK operations, even in congested and contested conditions. The system is anti‐jam, anti‐intercept, anti‐detect, anti‐denial, A2/AD resistant, supports 4000+ sensor types, scales from 2 nodes upward of 10k+, and easily integrates with ATAK devices.
NETWORKS & SERVICES
FutureScape™: Agent‐based Modeling and Simulation platform. Each item or ‘agent’ in the simulation connects to, influences or is influenced by every other agent on every other layer or domain, resulting in a realistic and dynamic environment. FutureScape™ allows the user to conduct “what‐if” drills and show how those layers interact, and the impact they have on a network’s connectivity, throughput, propagation/coverage, network health, service health, performance, and signal flow.
IBM Netcool Operations Insight: Integrates infrastructure and operations management into a single coherent structure across business applications, virtualized servers, network devices and protocols, internet protocols, and security and storage devices. NOI provides the capability of monitoring the health and performance of IT and network infrastructure across local, cloud and hybrid environments. It also incorporates market leading event management capabilities, and leverages real‐time alarm and alert analytics, combined with broader historic data analytics.
Battlefield Identity Credential Access Management (ICAM) : This system provides battlefield multifactor ICAM for clients, applications, and data. It supports passwords and SMS sent code with biometric optical scans as well as QR‐codes/RFID. It runs on thin clients, on premise, on cloud, and networked to support contested battlefield communication environments. Fingers, hand, face, and iris are all supported. It is wrapped in post‐quantum encryption to secure biometrics indefinitely. It can be provisioned and deployed centrally or on the battlefield edge to map to a user role‐base, even foreign mission partners, to control access.
Oracle ICAM: Industry leading comprehensive suite of ICAM tools that are deployable on premise or in the cloud. Key capabilities include Soldier Identity Management, Soldier Credential Management, C5ISR Application Access Management, and RMF & Cyber Governance.