Shadow sides of electronic warfare
Military control and communications systems over the last generation of their development are based on technologies developed by the telecommunications market, taking into account the requirements for protection class, technical specifications for the combat use of these weapons at an armored base, in combat aviationOn navy, with an element base that can withstand the conditions of combat operation. Volumes of production of IT products for public and commercial purposes significantly (by orders of magnitude) exceed the volume of IT products for military purposes.
Considering that of the ten largest transnational corporations in the world in the IT field, eight TNCs belong to the United States (the ninth and tenth TNCs - Sony, Samsung), while creating a super-profitable and high-tech industry, the US IT industry was able to influence the economic development of the world.
Maintaining this influence is imposed through a variety of tools in the form of theories and concepts such as "post-industrial information community", various kinds of "information wars", "information operations", "the struggle for information superiority" and the like.
MONOPOLY IN FIFTH STORAGE
In this, with historical point of view, there is nothing fundamentally new, humanity has used such tools as methods of misinformation, misrepresentation, direct deception and distortion of information, in its development more than once. The novelty is that the US IT industry has created and owns giant global services for the reproduction and dissemination of information, data and large-scale operational actions with them. The task of the rest of the world, according to the United States, is to participate in this, buy continuously updated IT products, follow the technological logic of the US IT industry, ensure its super-profitability, invest in its development with its own resources and its “brains” of offshore programming, supporting the illusions of the information community, Consuming US IT industry products. The unfairness of the situation lies in the fact that the US leadership, the US IT industry, in fact, single-handedly saddled the modern, “fifth” technological structure, removed the main profits from it, leaving the rest of the world, including the rest of the world applied science, to understand and master the innovations of IT- US industry.
Against this background, the development of tactics of actions of forces and means of electronic warfare (EW), forces and means of electronic suppression (REB) as an integral part of EW.
REB systems are functionally divided into suppression systems:
- radio electronic means (RES) of control systems weapons;
- control systems, communication systems;
- navigation systems, identification "friend or foe".
The problem of the suppression of weapons control systems is the participation of special means of REP in solving dueling tasks, such as, for example, “aircraft — anti-aircraft missile of the air defense system”, “aircraft — ground radar”, “ship — anti-ship missile”, “troop column on the march - radio-controlled mine of the enemy ". This is an independent branch of the development of REB assets as an integral part of onboard weapon systems. The main focus in the “information confrontation” plan is to solve the tasks of suppressing the radio communication system with the forces and means of the radio-electronic circuit as a system-forming component of troop control.
With the expansion of ideas about the role and importance of electronic warfare, the solution of the problems of radio electronic communication systems was aimed at achieving the following goals (in order of evolutionary development):
- REB in order to delay the passage of individual control signals, signals for the introduction of alert levels, combat signals on the battlefield, individual messages in the form of orders, instructions, reports, etc .;
- REP for the purpose of delaying certain volumes of information flows of messages, aimed at increasing the duration of the enemy command and control cycles so that they exceed the corresponding control cycles of our troops in duration;
- REB for the purpose of violation, disruption of control of the enemy's forces due to the massive use of REB means while ensuring comparable quantitative ratios — repressed RES / REB assets.
The issue of achieving these goals was not always commensurate with the technological capabilities of REB facilities, with ensuring an acceptable quantitative ratio of oppressed enemy's RESs and REB facilities, with the lack of real combat experience in using REB facilities and systems in military operations (accordingly, there are no real conclusions and recommendations in future conflicts and wars). And also, despite the declarativeness of statements about the desire to conduct an “information war”, this problematic is aggravated by the practical lack of methods and metrics for assessing the reduction in command awareness, enemy headquarters as a result of the suppression of its communication systems.
ERROR AND REALITY
At first glance, the suppression of troop control systems by affecting radio communications at command and control facilities or at controlled sites is a very attractive and promising task for achieving radio electronic warfare objectives and, as a result, warfare. Is it really, try to understand and evaluate.
The solution of the seemingly simple task of suppressing the enemy’s radio communication systems in the modern era has created a number of technological, organizational and ethical “details”, seriously distorting the seemingly obvious success in dealing with a likely adversary by suppressing the RES of its command and control systems. This confidence, confidence in the apparent success of the suppression of the electronic systems of the enemy’s command and control systems, is the basis for believing in the idea of EWR as a kind of “miracle weapon” capable of causing serious damage to the enemy, economically and inexpensively, commensurate with the damage caused by fire weapons. To do this, it is necessary to create such a density of REB assets, such a ratio of forces by means of REBs to radio communications equipment, so that the enemy would have to suppress most of the radio communications equipment and would inevitably refuse to engage in hostilities or admit defeat. This idea so firmly captured the minds of military theorists that in the era of mass armies in 70 – 80-ies of the last century, the idea arose of creating EW divisions, which, fortunately, was not brought to practical implementation. But the creation of EW brigades, and behind them, EW troops in our time was crowned with success. Apparently, now this ridiculous phenomenon must be considered a breakthrough for military science, for operational art and strategy. Moreover, an idea emerged about the possibility of intimidating a real enemy or formations in rebel territories by the use of REP forces. This idea was reflected in the proposal of such a method as “demonstrative actions” of the REP forces.
Indeed, demonstrative actions of combat forces, fleet forces, and aviation are carried out with the aim of misleading the enemy with the implementation of measures to conceal, imitate, and disinformation. However, demonstrative actions of the forces and means of REB, taking into account their “negative” vitality, according to the classics of psychiatry, have all the signs of a suicidal behavior model. The use of REB facilities directly in hostilities causes an appropriate operational response of the opposing side to detect powerful emitting means of REB and their fire suppression. The risks of using REP funds are very high. The lifetime of these means is limited to almost instantaneous response time of electronic intelligence systems and means of defeating the enemy. And this means that the losses in the REP stations and in their service personnel will be maximum. Active agents of REP become disposable by the possibilities of their use.
For comparison, we note that the functional purpose of the US Armed Forces REP is to administer (regulate) the electromagnetic spectrum in hostilities - Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Management Operations, which, by analyzing the experience of real use of EW in US conflicts in local conflicts, consists in conducting administrative measures throughout electromagnetic frequency spectrum. These include the ability to carry out electronic impact (Electronic Attack), electronic protection (Electronic Protection) and the provision of electronic warfare (Electronic Warfare Support).
CLEANING IN VIRTUAL SPACE
The US EW activities in modern conditions, unlike what they write in their own guiding documents, are in fact not focused on the duel confrontation of radio-electronic means and systems (the so-called informational confrontation), but on preventive measures for stripping the entire radio frequency spectrum from all radiation of artificial origin, accounting for natural radiation and preventing the enemy's radio station from broadcasting with the start of hostilities. The resource of EW forces and facilities in the US military is huge. In reality, before the outbreak of hostilities, the entire electromagnetic frequency spectrum is “burned out” for several days, and later on it is distributed between its RES. Thus, the problem of choosing free frequencies, electromagnetic compatibility of radio-electronic devices, suppressing “unnecessary” emitters directly during combat operations is largely solved. This is evidenced by the experience of events in the Middle East with the participation of US troops. In 1982, two days before the landing of the US Marine Corps in Lebanon, an operation was carried out to completely suppress the radio frequency spectrum in the region. Before the ground phase of the Desert Storm operation, massive suppression was carried out throughout the frequency spectrum for two days too, at the same time the control and communication systems of the then Transcaucasian Military District were suppressed, and the electromagnetic field itself created by means of the USA REP was noted at the latitude of Voronezh. That is, informally, the main purpose of the US EW is to create favorable conditions for the operation of its own radio-electronic means in the combat zone.
RADIO ELECTRONIC STRUGGLE IS THROUGH
The breakthrough achievements of scientific and technical ideas of the past two decades have allowed for the creation of a whole range of information and communication systems that fundamentally changed the face of the information space, management systems for complex technical and infrastructure facilities, including those containing potentially dangerous threats (nuclear power plants, hydrotechnical facilities, chemical industry enterprises). , air and sea ports). The same list of objects also contains potentially vulnerable global air and sea traffic management systems, public life support agencies, such as fire and ambulance services, rescue services, law and order, electricity, food supplies and fresh water.
Violations, obstacles in their functioning can lead to catastrophic consequences and unpredictable disasters of a humanitarian order. And the reason for the occurrence of such violations can be the massive use of EW tools, especially in local focal conflicts unfolding in highly urbanized areas, urban guerrilla warfare, when hostilities and everyday civil life can take place on neighboring streets in neighboring neighborhoods. In this case, the civilian population and its life support system may suffer damage from the suppression of personal multimedia facilities, networks that are practically the same as those of military radio communication systems (results of dual-use technologies). Under these conditions, the use of REPs literally turns into a weapon of mass destruction. Understanding this forces the US command to pay more attention to the information impact on the population of the territories under its control as a more effective and less detrimental to the general-purpose telecommunications space.
In modern reality, the emergence and distribution of EW systems and tools initiates a number of difficult problems, each of which has not yet been completely resolved. From a military point of view, low survivability, “one-time use” of the use of REB funds raises the question of the cost of their use, REB funds are expensive products, and they cannot be attributed to expendables in case of hostilities. The next problem is the lack of clear ideas about the projection of the suppression of the communication space systems to reduce the potential and capabilities of the information space. There are no relevant information metrics capable of assessing the after-effects of using REB on the content side of the information space, so far, if we do not take into account various statistical estimates for time delays. Since the telecommunications space, due to the unity of the technological basis, provides its resources both for military control systems, communications and navigation, as well as for global, regional and municipal systems of air and sea transport management, life support systems, indiscriminateness, erroneous actions of forces and means lead to disastrous consequences. If we add to this the lack of control over the proliferation of REB funds, the question arises of the possibility of using REB tools for terrorist purposes, and the consequences of uncontrolled use of REB may be comparable to the consequences of the use of weapons of mass destruction.
Information