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The Maritime Services, the Allies and Shaping the Kill Web

THE ELECTRONIC WARFARE CASE: DISTRIBUTED CAPABILITIES FOR THE
ATTACK-DEFENSE ENTERPRISE

Lt. General (Retired) Davis on Distributed Electronic Warfare Capabilities
2017-08-31 By Robbin Laird

On August 23, 2017, the Williams Foundation held a seminar on the future of electronic warfare.

With the introduction of the Growler, this has provided a natural hook into the broader discussion of the
evolving payloads, which need to be part of an integrated 21st century combat force.

As Group Captain Braz put the objective of Growler introduction within the ADF:
“New thinking in terms of dynamic targeting, particularly of non-lethal effects, many of which may be
temporary in nature, will be a key to success.

“Delegating these engagement authorities forward will be essential.”

Lt. General (Retired) Jon Davis, the former Deputy Commandant of Aviation, echoed these sentiments within
his presentation to the Williams Foundation seminar.

He described the USMC transition from a core aircraft delivering an EW effect to building out the MAGTF to
include ubiquitous access to non-kinetic tron warfare capabilities.

The core approach going forward is very clear.

“MAGTF EW transitions the Marine Corps from a focus on low density/high-demand EW platforms, to a
distributed, platform-agnostic strategy – where every platform contributes/ functions as a sensor, shooter and
sharer – to include EW.

“Under MAGTF EW the Marine Corps is leveraging emerging technologies and integrating multiple platforms,
payloads, nodes, and capabilities to provide commanders with an organic and persistent air and ground EW
capability.”
Davis underscored that with the changing nature of warfare and how the Marines operate, shaping a
distributed strategy was a necessity, not an option.

“We operate on ships, from ships to shore and ashore.

“We cannot simply have an on call EW asset.
“We can confront the threat requiring an EW capability anywhere we operate.”

He described the sun setting of the unique EW aircraft, the Prowler, in favor of a sequential role out of
distributed capability to the MAGTF.

He focused initially on Intrepid Tiger which is an EW pod being incorporated the Marine Corps legacy air.

It is on the Harrier and UH-1Y currently but will be added to other aircraft in the force.

“It’s made over 20 deployments now.
“It’s an open architecture system.
Second Line of Defense

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