Sensors, AI, and RF Converge on the Battlefield
For one who has never served in the military, it’s difficult to even conceive of the chaos and horror of front-line action in an armed conflict. I’ve seen plenty of films, of course, some of which do an admirable job of portraying what it must be like (such as the terrifying Normandy landing sequence in Saving Private Ryan). The overall impression is one of utter confusion. Where is the enemy? Where is my support? Should we advance directly, or to the left or right? What’s coming up behind me?
Flashing forward to how modern warfare is waged, we see an entirely different picture. I’m sure it’s no less horrifying and frightening to be on the battlefield. But today’s armed forces have a massive amount of information to work with. The proliferation of sensors and unmanned aerial vehicles, coupled with a wireless communication infrastructure, turns what was a disparate collection of personnel, weapons, and other equipment into a highly coordinated whole.
With sensors nearly instantly detecting threats and sharing their data, commanders gain much greater situational awareness. They can see in real-time what’s happening in the battlespace.
The coupling of AI and edge processing with sensors turns raw data into actionable targeting data right where it’s collected. As a result, decision-making is semi-automated; commanders have more than enough information to efficiently direct their forces and firepower to respond to threats.
The key to this cohesion, of course, is the RF infrastructure and networking that underlies it. RF communications is now part of the weapons systems, which opens the way to new vulnerabilities. Just as radar sites were targeted during World War II to disrupt air defenses, a modern adversary will actively attack the RF infrastructure through jamming, spoofing, GPS/GNSS disruption, injection of false data, and so on.
The answer is found in even more sophisticated technologies: multi-band radios; mesh networking; adaptive waveforms; electronically steered phased arrays; low-probability-of-intercept communications; resilient positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT); and autonomous network management. The overall strategic shift pushes away from platforms and toward networks, through which the entire force can share real-time data about where the enemy is located and what it’s doing.
Don’t miss our September 22 webinar: Future Directions for the Connected Battlefield, during which I’ll delve into these topics with a panel of industry experts. For another industry perspective, see my recent interview with Analog Devices’ Bryan Goldstein for a discussion of these challenges from ADI’s signal-chain-centric perspective.
About the Author
David Maliniak
Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF
I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.
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About me:
In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.
