![]() “I want our operators to be able to talk without getting detected and have their output get to where it needs to without being altered.” “We’re not there yet,” he told delegates. In North America, the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is also grappling with the problem of helping SOF to communicate in contested environments.Īt the GSOF Europe Symposium, USSOCOM’s acquisition executive, Jim Smith confirmed communications in contested environments remains a top priority for the Tampa-based command although he conceded the organisation did not yet possess the solution they want. Lessons learned from Ukraine of SOF operating in potentially GPS-disrupted areas of operation are of particular interest to special forces units around the World which might be seeking to protect operators from similar threats, albeit from different adversaries. ![]() More often than not, SATCOM is relied upon to support C2 and common operating pictures. Radios are capable of operating the US Army’s Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) waveform which according to the US Department of Defense (DoD) “provides secure line-of-sight transmissions”.Ĭritical to the success of special operations conducted by UASOF in Ukraine is command and control (C2) of units across the battlefield, something which requires a robust communications network capable of passing high throughputs of data at low latency for near real-time updates from across the battlespace. UASOF are operating a variety of solutions including 元Harris Technologies’ Falcon III RF-7800 series handheld, vehicular and manpack radio sets. He said that “secure, low visibility and low profile” communications solutions were required which would allow SOF operators to communicate without being detected or disrupted by Russian Electronic Warfare (EW) units. ![]() One of the most relevant discussions conducted at the GSOF Europe Symposium was that of communications in contested environments, similar to those being experienced first hand by Ukrainian Armed Forces Special Operations Forces (UASOF) in the ongoing conflict in eastern Europe.Īddressing delegates at the event, commander of UASOF, Brigadier General Viktor Khorenko demanded a series of ‘innovations’ for the special operations units under his command. GPS is routinely used by special operations forces (SOF) to support positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) as well as strategic satellite communications (SATCOM) providing high capacity reach back to headquarters often located hundreds if not thousands of miles away.īetween 5-6 October, senior commanders from across the European and North American special operations community gathered in Budapest, Hungary to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine and the future of special forces around the world. “There is very limited recourse to non-space based systems given GPS services are integrated into most land systems from tactical radios to missile systems,” the MoD document explained.
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