Tech Session: The Challenge of Multifunction Systems

The AOC Symposium's first Tech Session on Monday offered attendees an interesting discussion of "Multi-Functional EMS Technologies." The session was chaired by Muddy Watters, who led a panel comprising Mike Meaney, Vice President for Maritime Electronic and Information Warfare Programs, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems; Anthony Nigara, Vice President, Strategy & Business Development Space & Airborne Systems, L3Harris; and Laura Cawthron, Assistant Program Manager for the Strategic Electronic Warfare Portfolio, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

The session panelists generally agreed that multifunction technologies are maturing quickly. Mike Meaney started off by explaining that we are heading in the direction of software defined, hardware-enabled multifunction systems that will feature ultra-low size, weight and power (SWAP) characteristics (volume less than 8 cm3, weight less than 1 kg, and power consumption under 25 W). Muddy Watters also discussed several examples of low SWAP airborne arrays, wideband multi-channel receivers and processors for multifunction applications.

According to the speakers, the bigger challenges for multifunction technology are not at the technology level.

Anothony Nigara talked about how multifunction systems acquisition will generate fundamental shifts in the existing business model for defense electronics companies. Software licensing will increase, hardware procurement will decrease and the military customer will pursue faster, easier, and less expensive upgrade cycles with software-defined multifunction systems.

Muddy Watters explained that our current planning and management tools are insufficient to provide the Electromagnetic Battle Management (EMBM) needed for employing multifunction systems in an autonomous swarm of unmanned platforms, for example. He also said that we do not have the modeling and simulation tools needed for testing and evaluation of multifunction systems. Lastly, he said that military acquisition systems are still too stovepiped and not aligned to buy multifunction systems.

Laura Cawthron framed the multifunction discussion in terms of doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel, facilities, and policy (DOTMLPF-P). In discussing organization, for example, she asked, are we set up for this complex fight in the EMS [using multifunction systems]? It's not just organization that matters, she said, but rather it's collaboration that's important. – J. Knowles