Over the past two years, the activity of electronic intelligence services has noticeably increased not only in the Syrian and Iraqi theaters, which would seem logical, but also in the Baltic region, where both warring parties are closely watching each other
On April 25, two US Air Force F-35A Lighting-II fighters from Squadron 34 flew from Lakenheath AFB in eastern England to Amari AFB in northern Estonia, arriving there at 11:00 GMT. The Air Force said in a statement: “This flight was planned in advance and is not relevant to current events. This allowed the F-35A fighters during a training flight to better familiarize themselves with the European theater of operations and at the same time reassure allies and partners of the US commitment to maintaining peace and stability in the region.” The distinguished Baltic states have been uncomfortable since the annexation of Crimea to Russia and Moscow's intervention in the civil war in Ukraine in March 2014.
However, the deployment of F-35A aircraft was not the only event in April that forced aviation spotters to grab onto cameras and video cameras, as evidenced by a huge amount of illustrative material. The arrival of the F-35A fighters in Estonia was accompanied by some interesting electronic intelligence (ELINT) activity. Materials collected by spotters comparing aviation radio bands and tracking air traffic information services indicate that the deployment of F-35A fighters occurred simultaneously with the flights of one American and one British electronic reconnaissance aircraft Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint / Airseeker and one American RC aircraft. -130U Combat Sent. These platforms perform tasks for the collection, identification, direction finding and analysis of RF sources. According to open sources, the RC-135W aircraft mainly concentrates on collecting radio intelligence data, while the RC-130U mainly collects electronic intelligence data, namely, radar signals. All three aircraft flew the ring route; two RC-135W aircraft from the north-west of the Kaliningrad region to the north-east of Poland, while the RC-135U flew over Estonia itself near the Russian-Estonian border. F-35A fighters completed their mission in 4 hours and returned to base in Great Britain, RC-135U / W aircraft left the area immediately after them.
Baltic intrigues
Neither the US nor the British Air Force reported anything about the flights of these RC-135U / W aircraft, which is not surprising at all. The purpose of their deployment could be twofold. First, the F-35A's journey to Estonia was part of the first deployment in Europe of this fifth generation fighter, which was designed from the outset with a low effective reflection area. Flying a fighter of this level of difficulty near Russian territory allowed the American and British Air Forces (which will receive their F-35B fighters later this decade) to collect electronic intelligence data on how the Russian integrated air defense system, especially ground-based airspace surveillance radars and radio communication systems as part of this air defense system respond to the deployment of such aircraft. Second, some air traffic analysts suggest that the deployment of these aircraft was intended as a precautionary measure - to persuade the Russians not to activate their radars while the F-35A was in Estonia. Some observers noted that all three RC-135U / W aircraft kept their ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) radio frequency transponders switched on during flight, making it possible to track these aircraft using such services. like FlightRadar24. Clear evidence that the US and UK Air Forces wanted their aircraft to be visible. The same observers say that when such aircraft collect intelligence over Iraq and Syria, in order to reduce signs of signature, they typically do not turn on their ADS-B transponders.
Near East
Outside the Baltic, there is active signal intelligence in the Syrian and Iraqi theaters of war as the US-led coalition (known as the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation-INHERENT RESOLVE or CJTF-OIR) is fighting the Islamic State (IS, Banned in RF). Again, the air traffic information community plays an important role in tracking current activity. For example, in February and March, the Americans were actively searching for the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who was hiding in the Iraqi city of Mosul at that time. It was reported that Beechcraf Super King Air-300 turboprop transport aircraft with RTR equipment circled regularly during the Battle of Mosul, which began on October 16, 2016. These planes hunted for radio signals that could reveal the location of Al-Baghdadi. In addition, several other interesting quasi-military aircraft were seen in the skies over Mosul. For example, this is the Pilatus PC-12M5 turboprop aircraft with registration number N56EZ, which is owned by the Sierra Nevada Corporation. This company is known for supplying electronic warfare / RTR systems for aircraft and converting them for these tasks. Several American Army Beechcraf MC-12W Project Liberty reconnaissance aircraft were also spotted over Mosul, collecting tactical and operational RTR data, primarily radio communication channels.
As noted above, the use of electronic intelligence data to track and destroy key ISIS figures in the Iraqi and Syrian theaters has become one of the main areas of work of the CJTF / OIR task force. As Professor David Stapples, head of the department of electronic warfare research at the University of London, noted: "The levels of communication in the IG are the simplest, standard cell phones are widely used, partly in the VHF range (30-300 MHz) and partly on satellite." The concept of the combat use of electronic warfare equipment in the CJTF / OIR operation in these theaters envisages the use of platforms such as the RC-135V / W in order to "suck" the electromagnetic spectrum, usually in the range from 3 MHz to 300 GHz, in order to identification of those radio frequency signals that may come from members of the IS group. Basically, this is the work of collecting metadata (a dataset that describes and provides information about other data) of electronic intelligence. This data must then be analyzed in order to separate possible signals from the militants from the general electromagnetic background. For Stupples, this is not an easy task, as IS has demonstrated that it can encrypt its messages. For example, militants are known to use commercially available communications encryption along with the Automatic Encryption Standard (AES) electronic data encryption protocols set by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. In addition, Stupples noted that all cell phones have their own encryption in the form of a unique encryption key required to connect to a particular network, while the phones' own key is not unique. These keys are combined to create a unique key for the phone every time it connects to the network. This information can be collected by aircraft, such as the RC-135W, and then analyzed on the ground.
On the other hand, in-house analysts from the aircraft crew can get a lot of interesting information from a slightly different kind of information. For example, if it was determined that a particular phone was used on August 30, 2015, when IS gangsters destroyed the Bela temple (founded in 32 in the Syrian city of Palmyra), and the same phone was identified again during the Battle of Raqqa in November 2016, then a picture of the aggregate data of electronic intelligence allows you to link this phone with a member of the IS group. Further identification of such communication sessions can be useful for geolocating this cell phone and then directly attacking the owner. This is one of the mechanisms that allows you to track and destroy the leaders of IS.
A threat
In recent years, many countries have been paying great attention to the development of their RTR funds. Investments are pouring into purchases of RTR systems and platforms. Large funds are also spent on airborne electronic warfare systems for self-defense of aircraft and operational and tactical tasks, for example, suppressing enemy air defense. At the same time, the best minds are focused not only on new technologies such as cognitive electronic warfare, but also on how to deal with the huge amount of RTR data collected by airborne platforms, as the electromagnetic spectrum becomes more and more congested everywhere, not least turn contribute to the proliferation of civilian smartphones. According to the site's estimates, the number of smartphone users worldwide will increase from the current 2.32 billion to 2.87 billion by 2020. And this increase in the use of smartphones and the active use of RTR data collection tools in current conflicts illustrates, according to the Italian company Elettronica, that "electronic warfare remains an important resource on board airborne platforms, both against traditional threats and against new generation threats."
The company’s view is underpinned by expectations for future threats, voiced by former US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter in his foreword to the 2017 defense budget request. Carter then said that Russian aggression in Europe, the rise of China in the Asia-Pacific region, the DPRK's threats, Iran's nuclear program and the activities of IS are strategic challenges for the United States and its allies for years to come.
The purchase of new radars around the world stimulates the military radar market and can also contribute to a corresponding increase in the volume of purchases of airborne RTR platforms.
Above average intelligence
The radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is becoming an increasingly crowded place. Civilian and military communications, radar stations … there is a fierce battle all over the world for the available frequency bands
The radio frequency spectrum covers the wavelength range from 3 hertz to 3 terahertz. At first glance, it may seem huge, but within this electromagnetic spectrum, military and civilian radars, amateur radio, civilian telecommunications, military telecommunications, television and radio broadcasting, professional telecommunications, radio control, medical, industrial and special radio frequencies must coexist … they are numerous. The solution to the problem is not at all facilitated by the fact that the volume of civil and military use of the radio range is not in any way decreasing, but rather the opposite. As noted a little earlier, according to the website statistica, the number of smartphones in the world will increase to almost 3 billion by 2020. In addition, the report "Market for military radars" estimates the volume of this market by 2020 at $ 13 billion (in 2015 it was $ 11 billion). While some are buying radar systems to replace existing land, sea and airborne systems, others are acquiring new systems, thus potentially increasing the number of military radars in service today. Research firm Strategy Analytics has evaluated and concluded that the military communications market could grow to $ 35 billion by 2024. Ultimately, it seems almost inevitable that such market growth will lead to a corresponding increase in the use of the radio frequency spectrum, filling it up and making the detection of signals of interest in this congested space even more problematic. Such trends may well contribute to the acquisition of more and more RTR platforms and systems by an increasing number of countries.
Asian-Pacific area
One of the regions where there has been a significant increase in purchases of RTR aircraft lately is the Asia-Pacific region. In November 2016, the Indonesian Air Force announced that Leonardo's SAGE-600 ESM (Electronic Support Measure) electronic support system had been installed on board five Airbus CN-235MPA patrol aircraft. The systems integration work was reportedly carried out by local RT enterprise Dirgantara Indonesia in cooperation with the American company Integrated Surveillance and Defense. According to Leonardo, the entire SAGE ESM family covers the frequency range from 0.5 to 40 GHz. A Leonardo spokesman said the product “blurs the line between traditional ESM and ELINT systems: it could be defined as a 'tactical RTR system'.
The frequency range of the system allows the detection of emissions from a wide variety of radars, including surveillance maritime radars, which typically operate in the S (2.3-2.5 / 2.7-3.7 GHz), C (5.25-5.925 GHz) and X (8.5-10.68) bands. GHz). These bands are also commonly used by ground-based coastal surveillance radars. SAGE-600 also covers the upper part of the radar spectrum, including the Ku (13.4-14 / 15.7-17.7 GHz), K (24.05-24.25 GHz) and Ka (33.4-36 GHz) bands. These three bands are especially important because they obscure the radio frequency signals used by anti-ship missiles to target them. Along with the Indonesian CN-235MPA aircraft, the SAGE family is on board the South Korean AgustaWestland AW-159 Wildcat helicopters (eight were ordered). Interestingly, according to Leonardo, this SAGE family can collect SAGE data in the VHF (30 MHz to 300 MHz) and UHF (300 MHz to 3 GHz) frequency bands.
In addition to acquiring SAGE ESM systems, Korea intends to replace its existing fleet of electronic reconnaissance aircraft, which is based on four Hawker / Beechcraft 800SIG / RC-800 turboprop transport aircraft. These aircraft will be replaced by two Dassault Falcon-2000 turboprop, configured for RTR missions. These aircraft were supposed to enter service with the Korean Air Force this year, but no reports have been received yet. There is very little information regarding the RTR systems installed on these aircraft, although it is possible that such systems could be supplied by either Samsung-Thales or LIG Nex1.
