Armada Analysis - Podcasts Thomas Withington

The importance of space as a domain of warfare is deepening. Since the dawn of the space age in the 1950s, militaries have exploited space for communications, espionage and strategic attack.

Despite the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, military demand for space is as strong as ever. The assertiveness of the People’s Republic of China and Russia is making space ever more strategically important. Expanding global military interest in the cosmos is impacting the electromagnetic environment. Actors seek to preserve access to their space-based assets while denying this to their rivals.

In this latest episode of the Radioflash! podcast we are joined by Juliana Suess, a research fellow studying space security at the Royal United Services Institute defence and security thinktank in London. We discuss counterpace weapons, both kinetic and electronic, and their long history. The influence of cyberwarfare as a counterspace weapon also falls under our gaze.

We examine the changing nature of counterspace warfare and the fact that attacks may no longer only be the preserve of nation states. We tackle the use of space Electronic Warfare (EW) during the ongoing war in Ukraine, and Russian capabilities. Moreover, the influence of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) jamming forms part of our discussion. We also talk about the steps that state and non-state actors can take to reduce their risks from space EW.

 

Tim Elliott, Head of Sales and Business Development, and Rob Hall, Product Management Lead at L3Harris in Tewkesbury and Fleet join Dr. Thomas Withington to address the many challenges presented by small UAS threats in today’s battlefield and explore how L3Harris’ CORVUS C-sUAS capabilities are helping to support such missions.

One of the Cold War’s great ‘what ifs?’ was whether the United Kingdom’s V-Bomber nuclear deterrent force would have been able to reach and attack its targets in the Soviet Union.

In the 1950s and ‘60s, the Royal Air Force’s V-Bomber fleet was the custodian of Britian’s nuclear deterrent. A trio of aircraft, namely the Vickers Valiant, Handley Page Victor and Avro Vulcan series strategic bombers were all tasked to deliver nuclear weapons of varying yields to targets in the Soviet Union (USSR).

Should the Third World War have broken out, these aircraft would have flown to their aimpoints in the USSR across what was arguably the most heavily defended airspace in the world. How likely was it that these aircraft would have reached their targets, delivered their nuclear weapons and escape unscathed? Would the electronic countermeasures carried by these aircraft have successfully defended them against Soviet radar? Could the V-bombers adequately jam the radio communications Soviet air defences depend upon?

A new book by historian Dr. Tony Redding, entitled V-Bombers on Britain’s Nuclear Frontline, lifts the veil on aspects of the V-Bomber force that have hitherto been shrouded in mystery. In this Radioflash! podcast he joins us to tackle such questions and to share other results of his research on the UK’s nuclear deterrent. More details of Dr. Redding’s publications can be found on his website.

Diamonds have attributes which are useful for current and future defence electromagnetic applications such as quantum communications and navigation.

Diamonds have the highest thermal conductivity of any solid material making them particularly suitable for environments where temperature management is paramount. Electronic warfare, radar and military communications all depend on power amplifiers to transmit radio frequency energy. The more power you send through these amplifiers, the more effective these systems become. However, this can come with a heat penalty making the temperature tolerances of diamonds particularly useful.

Furthermore, diamonds are well-placed to contribute to the emerging field of quantum communications where individual defects in the material, commonly known as flaws, help such applications. Diamonds with specific defects to support quantum communications can be produced on demand. Defects can also support quantum sensing applications, notably magnetic field sensing. Magnetic field sensing could support navigation applications not depending on Global Navigation Satellite System constellations.

Element6 produces synthetic diamonds and details on how these are formed can be found here. The company is involved in a Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiative called LADDIS (Large Area Device-quality Diamond Substrates). LADDIS is examining ways in which laboratory-grown diamonds can be used in microelectronics.

If you want to learn more about the role diamonds play in defence electromagnetics? Tune in to our latest Radioflash! podcast. We will be chatting to Ian Friel, Element6’s business development programme manager and principal scientist Andrew Edmonds.

Israel’s ongoing military operations in the Gaza Strip have once again highlighted the perils and pitfalls of urban electronic warfare, much as US-led operations in Iraq did several years earlier.

In episode 8 of the Radioflash! podcast, we chatted to Colonel Jeffrey H. ‘Fish’ Fischer, a European and global security expert, and author of the Curt Nover series of thrillers. Fish talked about the Electronic Warfare (EW) implications of Israel’s ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. This discussion generated significant interest and prompted an old friend of the podcast, Major Erik Bamford, to get in touch. Maj. Bamford is the Norwegian Armed Forces’ staff officer for electronic warfare and the Association of Old Crows’ director of region 1. Region 1 covers Africa, Europe and Middle East.

In this episode, we discuss the unique challenges inherent in performing EW in built-up areas. Maj. Bamford outlines the current state-of-the-art regarding the general literature on urban warfare. He talks about the place of electronic warfare within wider theories and approaches to urban combat. It is noteworthy, he says, that there is a paucity of dedicated texts looking at the peculiarities of EW in built-up areas. The examination of urban EW has tended to focus on electronic warfare’s role in the counter-improvised explosive device battle.

Meanwhile, troops must fight in a complex built-up environment home to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Radio Frequency (RF) emitters. To further complicate matters, radio waves have strange behaviours in urban environments, bouncing off hard surfaces and working badly underground. Certain building materials either reflect or absorb RF in particular ways. These phenomena only serve to further complicate the EW cadres’ work in the urban environment.

Maj. Bamford is keen to work with other EW practitioners who share his interest in urban electronic warfare and he can be contacted via the Armada website.

Ahmed Al Khoori, senior vice president, Strategy & Excellence, EDGE Group talks to Asian Military Review Editor-in-Chief ahead of exciting announcements at the Dubai Airshow.