TAKE AIM AT COLLABORATION: Soldiers test the A5 Stinger MANPADS at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, in August 2024. The joint service use of MANPADS highlights the need for interoperability. (Photo by Spc. Thomas Dixon, 7th Army Training Command)
by Kevin Deegan and Robert “Kris” Knopp
The mission of the United States Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) Software Engineering Center (SEC) Army Reprogramming Analysis Team (ARAT) is to produce threat analysis software for Soldiers deployed worldwide. Recently, ARAT has been teaming up with other organizations to maximize its impact by leveraging increased readiness and reduced response times to complex enemy threats.
In August 2023, ARAT coordinated with the joint service reprogramming centers to establish memorandums of understanding (MOUs) to formalize the sharing of software applications and threat simulations across services. These MOUs were based on prior visits to each of the dedicated Joint Service Reprogramming Centers to better understand partner capabilities, existing challenges and potential collaborative opportunities. At those meetings, respective teams established common obstacles—for example, keeping in lockstep with evolving radar threats for simulation purposes.
In conjunction with the Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors (PEO IEW&S) Project Management Office for Aircraft Survivability Equipment, the ARAT program office hosted the first-ever tri-service working group in August 2024. There were three objectives: 1) establish key stakeholders, guidelines and future engagements to establish unity; 2) institute a centralized repository to enable sharing of reprogramming artifacts and facilitating effective sharing of other resources; and 3) define commonality in capabilities and hurdles to improve overall collaboration within the community.
THREAT ANALYSIS
Threat analysis plays a critical role in the electronic warfare reprogramming life cycle because it allows for an in-depth examination of a given threat and its potential impact on a system. The tri-service working group specifically targeted how each service conducts threat analysis at scale by focusing on the challenges arising during large-scale combat operations (LSCO). The group sought a heightened understanding of the current mission and improvement areas, such as leveraging the centralized repository to ensure effective identification, assessment and response time to emerging threats.
“Soldiers, sailors and airmen will be fighting alongside each other in the conflicts of the future,” said John Sensing, lead for the ARAT Infrastructure Enhancement Program. “To ensure their success in the field, the support teams here need to learn to work together as well.”
ARAT is fully committed to this joint community and is dedicated to driving a unified strategy across the services, ensuring continued progress and collaboration.
OVERLAPPING BENEFITS
One key takeaway from the tri-service working group is the considerable overlap among threats faced by each service—Army, Navy and Air Force—indicating a critical need for a centralized repository on the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, or SIPRNet, to share threat-specific information. Such a repository enables the services to collaborate and share valuable resources, improving readiness and response capabilities.
GATHER ‘ROUND: The ARAT working group’s goal is to establish unity; institute a centralized repository of resources; and define commonality in capabilities to improve overall collaboration within the software community. (Photo by Kyle Champion, CECOM ARAT)
Maintaining the balance of expanded participation and intended scope is essential in this type of effort. While growth tends to introduce complexity, it also presents a path for integrated solutions.
Each of the services has threats it is focused on defeating, with some overlapping and some service-specific. An example of this overlap can be seen with Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS)—portable missile systems that are utilized across the Army, Air Force and special operations forces—that highlight the need for interoperability across services for enhanced communication, coordination and operation. These overlapping domains present significant opportunities for mutual benefit.
In addition, when unexpected threats suddenly enter one service’s domain of concern, they can benefit from another service that previously built and maintained a simulation of that threat. In such cases, the affected service can leverage the centralized repository to check if a threat simulation exists. If it does, the service can readily access and use the simulation or quickly modify it to meet their specific needs for testing, rather than starting from scratch. This process saves time and resources and enables the services to effectively respond to emerging threats and maintain readiness across their respective domains.
“CECOM SEC’s ARAT team is leading the charge in the reprogramming theater, using its collaboration ability with external stakeholders and overall experience in techniques and processes, becoming a force multiplier in support of LSCO and posturing success for Army, DOD and joint forces,” said Matthew Bernhardt, associate director for SEC’s Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors Directorate.
RADAR WARNING: ARAT and joint service reprogramming centers established common obstacles in software and threat simulations across services in August 2023—for example, keeping up with evolving radar threats for simulation purposes, illustrated here with the ARAT Electronic Warfare Radar Warning Receiver Laboratory Test Cart. (Photo by Kevin Deegan, CECOM ARAT)
CONCLUSION
Threats are ever-changing. Highlighted in the tri-service working group was ARAT’s Simulation Modeling Framework (SMF), a game-changing solution that facilitates threat simulation sharing by standardizing the format in which simulations are constructed. With minimal constraints, SMF empowers simulation builders to model threats as they operate in real-world scenarios, enabling simulations to adapt and “pace the threat” as it evolves. SMF is revolutionizing the simulation landscape across reprogramming centers, government organizations and potentially the broader industry, and driving a paradigm shift in how threat simulations are created, shared and utilized.
Teamwork will continue to prove critical as the tri-service working group establishes a centralized repository and fosters an environment of open communication and information sharing. This approach is expected to help maintain readiness among the increased complexity of enemy threats, reduce response times to emerging threats and foster progress toward joint force efforts supporting large-scale combat operations.
The tri-service working group plans to meet again in March 2025. Its agenda includes gathering input on best practices and continuing to build a robust and efficient repository to support simulation sharing and overall collaboration efforts.
ARAT and the Project Management Office for Aircraft Survivability Equipment also plan to initiate an O-6 level forum. This forum’s goal is to get leadership buy-in and will supplement the reprogramming working group advocacy and decision-making, while also including a hardware-related scope.
For more information about CECOM SEC, go to cecom.army.mil/SEC.
KEVIN DEEGAN provides contract support to CECOM as a strategic communications specialist at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. He holds a B.A. in journalism from Temple University and is certified as Project Management Professional.
ROBERT “KRIS” KNOPP is the Systems Engineering and Integration branch chief and chief engineer for the Army SEC’s, ARAT Program Office at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. He holds a B.S. in physics and mathematics from Randolph-Macon College.
