The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) released a new capability this week that aims to improve the U.S. military’s situational awareness of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS).
The Electromagnetic Battle Management – Joint (EMBM-J) integrates a range of electromagnetic spectrum capabilities and functions into one system that seamlessly gathers and arranges data into a single visual display, DISA said. The EMS is considered a modern-day battle space that spans the air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace domains.
“The EMS has become a very highly contested and constrained battlespace, even domestically but on the warfighting front within the DoD spectrum is just critical to everything we do,” Kevin Laughlin, DISA’s Spectrum Program Executive Office deputy director, said during a media roundtable with reporters today. “We’re becoming more and more a wireless-capable military.”
“EMS [is] very important to what we do and EMBM-J situational awareness it’s the first iteration of a tool that’s essentially allowing us to bring a bunch of data together on one platform, one visualization so that the warfighters and commanders can sense, understand the information, and make decisions more rapidly at the speed of relevance on the battlefield,” Laughlin said.
According to DISA, EMBM-J implements a common data layer, allowing it to be interoperable with service-specific EMS systems like the Army’s Electromagnetic Warfare Planning and Management Tool, the Marine Corps’ Spectrum Services Framework, and the Navy’s Real Time Spectrum Operations.
Laughlin explained that EMBM-J will provide commanders with the ability to gain and maintain situational awareness and understanding of what’s happening within the EMS environment.
“Command and control applies to both maneuver offensive actions and defensive actions – how you array your forces, how you guide and direct them to execute missions, meet intent, and we want to do that within the EMS domain and that’s what electromagnetic battle management is primarily focused on,” Laughlin said.
“But going out to the tactical edge, I would anticipate that the component capabilities within the air, land, sea, space domain would receive that information and then provide those last orders if you will, that last direction, out to the component warfighting capabilities,” he said. “So electromagnetic battle management joint is primarily at the joint force and operational level of war. Understanding the information, moving information out to those component capabilities, and then within those domains, doing similarly down to the tactical level.”
EMBM-J is cloud-based platform that aligns with the department’s Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) initiative that kicked off in 2021. CJADC2 encompasses DoD’s push to empower Joint Force Commanders with the capabilities needed to command the Joint Force across all warfighting domains and throughout the electromagnetic spectrum to deter or defeat any adversary at any time and in any place around the globe.
DISA’s Spectrum Program Executive Office partnered closely with U.S. Strategic Command to develop EMBM-J. According to the agency, the two will continue developing the capability to enhance its analytical features and ability to identify and address any EMS issues that could affect a commander’s decision-making.
“The program office was stood up and started on this effort getting this [minimum viable capability release] out the door for the situational awareness, which is the first iteration, but it’s also the first of several capabilities,” Laughlin said today.
“The decision support – which is going to focus more so on planning, deciding, directing functions within command and control – is the next iteration,” he continued, adding, “And we’re leaning forward, looking for awarding that contract here very shortly.”
