| This paper discusses the topic of Information
Operations (IO) Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) and its
role in next-generation Electronic Warfare (EW). A key
component of effective IO is to be able to adequately
observe and characterize victim networks in order to
properly strategize an attack. Another key component of
effective IO is persistent performance monitoring of the
network under attack in order to ascertain the
effectiveness of a particular attack strategy and to assist in
the adaptation of attack strategies as necessary to
accomplish the EW goal. This paper presents a vision of
the next-generation EW platform which employs
'intelligent jamming' principles, and the importance of IO
BDA in next-generation EW systems. This paper presents
results from several field exercises conducted by JHU/APL
in which commercial-based wireless networks were
passively observed and characterized from 10s of miles
away with inexpensive commercially-available hardware
and software whose size, power, and weight could be
accommodated by even covert EW platforms. The paper
illustrates the types of sophisticated network
characterization and performance assessment that can be
conducted through relatively simple post-collection traffic
analysis techniques. Finally, this paper discusses how this
method of network characterization could be employed
within an intelligent jamming (or any other type of IO)
framework to provide the required functions of network
characterization and IO BDA. |