Armada International Podcast: SPX - Redefining airborne connectivity for defence and security

David Robbins, Business Development Director for Data Links at SPX Communication Technologies, joins Thomas Withington to explore one of the biggest challenges facing modern defence and security teams: how to ensure reliable, secure communications across airborne platforms in contested environments. David introduces ECS Connect, a new capability that aggregates satellite, cellular, mesh, and traditional data links into a single, secure solution, reducing pilot workload and delivering near-100% reliability.Robust connectivity is crucial for safeguarding borders and enabling data-driven intelligence, particularly as threats escalate across regions such as Eastern Europe and the South China Sea.Yet no single technology, whether cellular, SATCOM, or mesh, meets every mission’s need.Defence and security teams face the growing challenge of ensuring reliable airborne communications in contested environments.

A new film documentary is in development that reveals the fascinating history of tactical datalinks and the impact they have had on military operations around the world. Tactical Datalinks (TDLs) help reduce the Clausewitzian ‘fog of war’ by improving situational awareness. TDLs have been around in some shape or form since the Second World War. It was during that conflict that the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) pioneered the technology via its Bernhard/Bernhardine system. This early TDL let fighter crews receive basic written data on the location of their targets. Information was sent in written form across a surface-to-air radio link and printed on paper tape in the fighter cockpit. Following that conflict, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) spearheaded further TDL development. This effort resulted in Link-11/22 and Link-16. The latter primarily supports air operations by sharing track and tactical information while Link-11/22 does much the same for the maritime domain. Today, scores of TDLs are in service around the world. A new film documentary called Timber Sweet is in the offing which tells the fascinating story of the tactical datalink’s development, and the impact TDLs have had on warfare. The initiative is the brainchild of TDL expert and filmmaker Sean Bergesen. Mr. Bergesen is the guest on Episode 21 of Radioflash! More information about the film can be found here.

On 15th August, the second edition of Cognitive Warfare: An Artificial Intelligence Approach, the seminal work on this subject, will be published.The first edition of Dr. Karen Haigh and Dr. Julia Andrusenko’s book was published in 2021. Armada gratefully received a copy which we reviewed. Just four years later, the second edition has hit the shelves. That a new version has appeared so rapidly should be no surprise. The world of cognitive Electronic Warfare (EW) is moving apace, thanks to advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).The original edition was a clear yet comprehensive discussion of the fundamentals of cognitive EW. The new version continues to be easily readable and is just as, if not more, informative than the first. Drs. Haigh and Andrusenko neatly summarise recent advances in the subject. They also clarify or add further discussion to points raised in the original work. Much has happened since publication of the first edition: Russia commenced her second invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Iran and Israel have fought a recent short war and the People’s Republic of China continues to emerge as a strategic rival to the United States and her allies.As both authors note, the net effect of these global shocks is exacerbated by the dizzying speed at which AI and ML are moving. A useful addition to the latest book is a section with practical exercises one can undertake to start to get a feel for cognitive EW architectures. As with the first edition, the new work is comprehensively referenced. This exhaustive approach is particularly welcome in helping the reader discover new avenues of scholarship and analysis which will prove useful as the discipline develops.Drs. Haigh and Andrusenko’s new work is very much the right book at the right moment and will become the standard text for this fascinating discipline. Its concise yet thorough style will appeal to both the specialist and general reader alike. Cognitive Warfare: An Artificial Intelligence Approach should be required reading from the foxhole to the boardroom and ministerial office. To learn more about the book, and Dr. Haigh’s insights on cognitive EW, enjoy this latest episode of Armada’s Radioflash! podcast. To order a copy please visit the website of its publisher Artech House.

Kyiv faces the prospect that the United States may end her military support for Ukraine following a suspension in March. How could the international community fill any gaps left by Uncle Sam?On 4th March the administration of US President Donald Trump announced an abrupt suspension of all military aid to Ukraine. A few days earlier on 28th February, the world witnessed an unbelievable spectacle in the Oval Office. Ukraine’s President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy was on the receiving end of a bizarre temper tantrum from Mr. Trump and his vice president JD Vance. Fortunately, the suspension was soon lifted, but Mr. Trump’s actions provoked some serious questions.Ukraine has benefitted from supplies of US Electronic Warfare (EW) kit and expertise. Ukraine’s allies must be able to step up to quickly fill any void, in terms of EW assistance, left by Uncle Sam’s isolationism. At the same time, European allies must continue enhancing their defences against Mr. Putin’s regime. How can US EW capabilities be substituted for Ukraine? What are Ukraine’s electromagnetic needs as the war continues? These questions, and more, are the focus of this episode of Armada’s Radioflash! podcast with Oleksandr ‘Sashko’ Matviienko, a defence journalist and analyst from the publication CounteroffensivePro.

China’s advancement in sensing technology is moving at pace. A new report examines in detail where the country might be catching up with the United States.On 20th January, the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) DeepSeek artificial intelligence chatbot was released, based on the DeepSeek-R1 Artificial Intelligence (AI) model. The Hangzhou DeepSeek AI company, which developed the model, has claimed its chatbot outperforms US rivals like OpenAI. It also claimed that DeepSeek’s large language model cost $5.6 million to train. This is notably less than that spent on comparable US offerings.Whatever the long-term effect of DeepSeek, the news thrust Chinese technological innovation into sharp relief. Advances such as these could have major strategic ramifications for accepted US technological pre-eminence. Not least of which in the sensing domain, which a report entitled China’s Remote Sensing, published in December 2024 by OTH Intelligence, discusses in detail.In this Radioflash! episode we talk to one of the report’s authors Tate Nurkin, a previous Radioflash! guest, about Chinese advances in sensing technologies across the board: How will the Chinese government and armed forces collect, process, store and use all this sensor data? What will be the impact of the dual use sensing technology being developed by the PRC? What effect is corruption having on China’s ability to secure the sensing capabilities the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) needs? Likewise, what impact will the PLA’s recent reorganisation of the Strategic Support Force into the Information Support Force have on PLA sensing capabilities writ large? All these topics, and more, come under discussion in this latest episode.

The defence and security electromagnetic agenda for the new US Congress and Executive is considerable, but what are the priorities? The new US Congress, and the administration of President Donald Trump, will have a heavy workload regarding the importance of the electromagnetic spectrum to America’s strength, security and prosperity. EW spending priorities will need be balanced with other defence and security needs. No matter how big any budgetary increases may be, economies must be made. There simply will not be enough available cash to fund every requirement. Meanwhile, the need to educate lawmakers on EW’s strengths and limitations will continue. Furthermore, the US Department of Defence bureaucracy must evolve to accommodate the need to innovate and deploy EW capabilities at pace. As our Radioflash! guest Ken Miller, director of advocacy and outreach for the Association of Old Crows’ international EW organisation explains, the next five years look busy.

As the modern battlefield is increasingly digitalised, the role of data in decision-making and situational awareness is vital. How can you make sure it gets through? The role of data in the modern world has undoubtedly increased. The ability to generate data has become much more simple and, as roles for the generated datapoints are created, data has become increasingly important to workflows, objectives, and missions.The modern battlefield, however, is changing. After more than two decades focussed on counter-insurgency and asymmetric warfare, dealing with peer and near-peer threats has once again become a concern. In the intervening period, the capabilities of competitive peers have increased - and in some areas surpassed those of Western nations.So, how do you ensure the security of your communications channels when faced with a capable adversary?“Planning your communications protocols and fallbacks is a major part of any deployment. Having a system that can deliver automated communications switching, as well as message prioritisation, means that battlespace operators can worry less about having to manage their networks and know that any disruption will be readily resolved,” Christoph Pauls, Business Product Manager at Systematic Defence said.“Systematic’s SitaWare Tactical Communication and SitaWare Headquarters Communication protocols help to automate your communications processes so that they can deal with a variety of challenges. This means that you can focus more on the operations and less on the architecture of your communication and digital battlespace setup,” Pauls added.https://www.armadainternational.com/2025/02/armada-international-podcast-3-delivering-data-to-those-who-need-it/

You have heard of hard kill, you have heard of soft kill, but what about SMART Kill? Drawing on his operational experience in the Royal Navy, and time in industry, Alasdair Gilchrist, our guest on episode 16 of Radioflash! says we need to start thinking about how to engage threats without stovepipes. Mr. Gilchrist, who has recently embarked on a new career as a consultant, has developed the SMART (Sensors and Measures Against Realistic Threats) Kill concept of operations. This takes the effects-based approach to prosecuting threats a step forward. He argues that traditional thinking about hard kill and soft kill approaches are becoming obsolete. The plethora of emerging threats militaries are facing, the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle (UAV) menace being a good example, is forcing this rethink. Within the SMART Kill concept, sensing stresses the importance of threat comprehension. Are we understanding the real, and not the perceived, threat? This is particularly relevant on future battlefields where misinformation and disinformation risks clouding our threat sensing and comprehension. When engaging a threat, are we using our effects judiciously and responsibly? Should we be sending kinetics aloft to counter UAVs, when jamming may kill such threats just as effectively? The danger posed by swarms of UAVs aptly underscores this point. Can the SMART Kill approach allow us to use technologies which may not be exquisite, but which may perform the mission just as well, but at a fraction of the cost?

The US and her allies are embracing the Multi-Domain Operations philosophy with the Joint All Domain Command and Control System is at the heart of this endeavour. Multi-Domain Operations, or MDO, focus on improving the pace and quality of decision-making at the expense of one’s adversary. The goal is to navigate the famed OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide and Act) loop at a faster clip than your enemy. Get MDO right and you will always be proactive while your opponent is forced to be reactive. JADC2 The Joint All Domain Command and Control architecture, or JADC2, is the US Department of Defence’s networking and computing project that will enable MDO. JADC2 will see the inter- and intra-force connection of all personnel, weapons, sensors, platforms, subsystems and capabilities at all levels of war. The undertaking is ambitious. Reports say that since 2022 the Pentagon has spent up to $2.6 billion on JADC2. A further $9 billion could be spent on the initiative before the end of the decade. In episode 15 of Armada’s Radioflash! podcast we talk to Leslie Hulser, executive vice president, corporate strategy of Persistent Systems. We examine the status of JADC2, what this overarching effort has achieved to date, potential problems and shortcomings, and the work that still needs to be performed.

Estonia is experiencing the challenges of Russian hybrid warfare first hand and is most likely in the direct path of any future military action by Moscow to reconstitute the former USSR. Estonia is on the frontline of efforts by the Russian government to destabilise the governments, economies and societies of the Baltic nations. Like her other Baltic neighbours, the invasion and occupation of Estonia will be key to any future attempts by Russia’s president Vladimir Putin to rebuild the former Soviet Union. So-called ‘sub-threshold’ actions by Moscow, which aim to amplify destabilisation but are short of outright war, are occurring in the electromagnetic spectrum. Estonia has witnessed recent disruption to civil aviation strongly suspected to have been caused by Russian GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) jamming. GNSS jamming has also caused disruption to everyday life in Estonia. Ride sharing services and food deliveries are two consumer services affected by Russian GNSS attack. At the same time, Estonia has faced regular and significant state-sponsored Russian cyberattacks. Barring a major political change in Russia, there are few signs that Moscow’s hybrid warfare against Estonia will cease any time soon. However, it is not all bad news. Domestic science and technology ingenuity is playing its part. Estonia has world-class innovation focused on nullifying and reducing the severity of nefarious Russian actions in the spectrum. Tallinn’s strategy writ large is not just to prevent Russian invasion but to deter it. In this latest edition of Armada’s Radioflash! podcast we chat about these and other issues with John Longhurst, chief executive officer of Tangent Link and longtime Estonian resident.