Spectrum Battle: Pentagon looks to Commercial Sector to Support Electronic Warfare in Space.

• Date: 01 February 2025
• Author: Heckmann, Laura
• Published date: 01 February 2025

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland--The electromagnetic spectrum was once a domain for information and navigation, but a shift from counterterrorism to great power competition has transformed it into a decisive battlefield.

But to achieve superiority, all roads lead to space, experts said, and the Defense Department needs to recognize not only the domain's role in electronic warfare, but how the commercial sector fits in as well.

"Whoever controls the spectrum is the leader in the great power competition," said Shawana Johnson, CEO of Global Geospatial Insights Inc., during a panel discussion at the Association of Old Crows International Symposium and Convention in December.

If controlling the spectrum starts in space, it first requires an understanding of what electronic warfare in space looks like, the panel suggested.

David Zurn, chief of the test engineering division at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, said defining electronic warfare in space is difficult because it is a "complex topic with many layers and many different modalities" that may involve jamming, lasers and GPS denial, to name a few. But for Zurn, it comes down to the links.

"Space electronic warfare involves defending and denying the link segment," he said during the panel. "The link segment is that link between the ground terminal and the space vehicle. It is critical to space operation--and space electronic warfare, from my perspective, is the adversary trying to deny that link and us trying to defend that link, and vice versa."

Everything from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to positioning and timing systems and remotely piloted aircraft rely on space, he said. "All of them have associated constellations. If you deny the radio frequency link, you may as well have iron hardware orbiting the Earth."

Modern warfighting is "heavily dependent" on space and "completely dependent" on reliable data and telemetry, tracking and command, or TT&C, links--communication channels that allow satellites in space and ground stations to talk to each other and send commands, Zurn said.

Adversarial electronic warfare counterspace is the use of operational systems to deny access to space assets, including data and TT&C links, Zurn said, and it will be used in future conflicts. As a result, resilience to space electronic warfare "should be a critical DoD priority," he said. "I don't think it is, based on what I've seen from an investment perspective and attention perspective."

A portion of the...