July 30, 2012
David Fulghum Washington
There are many breakthrough war-fighting technologies available to U.S. Air Force planners, but perhaps only 10-20% of these projects have any chance of being funded for the foreseeable future.
Among the concepts are weaponry—both kinetic and directed energy—to intercept ballistic missiles as they launch and to attack low-orbiting space objects. There also are warheads that destroy, befuddle and misinform enemy electronics. They come in various sizes to fit 1-ton bomb casings, cruise missiles and long–range air-to-air missiles. Cybersurveillance devices and weapons are already being introduced into the service's arsenal; but as their sophistication goes up, so does the price. The brakes are already being applied to all of these and other advanced concepts. Even so, the Air Force had the largest cybersecurity budget of any of the services at $622 million for fiscal 2011, or 34% of the Pentagon's $1.82 billion total for that year.
“After an early period of substantial aspirations [particularly in cyberactivities], we have recalibrated,” says Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, who is slated to retire in August. “That's in part the recognition that this is a mission area that will take time and expertise to do well.”
It is also a result of a decision to concentrate first on traditional air force missions. Demonstrations such as the service's Suter experiments have already proven that a data beam can be formed on an aircraft, filled with malicious algorithms and then fired into an antenna attached to a networked enemy defense system. The invasive code can show what enemy sensors see, take over as system administrator and invade outlying parts of the network through wireless communications links.
“Integrated air defenses are an area of [Air Force] interest,” says Schwartz. “There are various ways to engage in that. Some are kinetic [bombing] and some, perhaps increasingly, are non-kinetic.”
Those options include the use of cyber-, electronic-attack and directed-energy weapons. In addition to technology, some of the capabilities are related to intelligence preparation of the battlefield, as well as tactics, techniques and procedures. Nonetheless, high-power microwave (HPM), cyber-, boost-phase-intercept (BPI), anti-satellite (Asat) and electronic-attack weapons could all move forward as tactically useful devices, but the expense is proving prohibitive.
“I think we are going to have to be selective for a while,” Schwartz says. “This is clearly an area for [science and technology investments], but while in the past we could pursue five or six applications, now it will be one or two. HPM clearly has potential. There are others [such as Russia] that have done more in these areas than we have. Clearly this is an area for continuing efforts. The Air Force will be part of that.”