The U.S. Army is developing a deceptive capability for use within the electromagnetic spectrum mission – the Modular Electromagnetic Spectrum Deception Suite (MEDS). Currently in its early concepts stage, MEDS is expected to see the enemy and slow its decision cycle by overwhelming its forces within the spectrum.
Deception within the spectrum has become a high priority for the U.S. military, as adversaries have shown their ability to locate units based solely on their signature in the electromagnetic spectrum. Electromagnetic spectrum tracking is already a viable way of monitoring combatants’ movements or operations by picking up the signals given off by communication devices from afar.
One of the ways that MEDS would be used is to replicate friendly emissions within the spectrum from the small unit level all the way up to a full corps command post – causing the enemy to waste time and resources deciding if it is a real entity. MEDS could also create more “noise” within the spectrum to potentially slow down the enemy – essentially saturating the environment with electronic decoys to hide units or sensitive assets.
The military is still considering the many ways MEDS will be used in future.
“One is how do I use that deceptive capability to replicate the emissions that I would see from our friendly forces, whether that force is a small unit or even a core command post, to be able to replicate both the ops tempo, the type of traffic, the volume of traffic, to mimic those organizations,” Steven Rehn, director of the Army’s cyber capability development and integration directorate, said.