Resource Management Architecture for Electronic Warfare Networks

Distributed electronic attack and electronic support systems interact to complete a set of tasks and are of interest to the electronic warfare (EW) community. With the expanding operational threat space, the increasing complexity of emerging targets, and the increasing density of the electromagnetic environment, individual EW systems do not have sufficient resources to meet mission requirements. Moreover, current approaches to improve EW system interoperability and ensure Blue force communications constrain EW technique design and do not scale against emerging and future threats. Distributed and collaborative EW concepts offer potential relief to EW resource constraints by distributing sensing, communication, and engagement task management across multiple EW systems. While this vision offers many opportunities, its realization is currently limited by science and technology (S&T) gaps and incomplete functional requirements that prevent the precise definition of a distributed EW resource manager. In this article, we describe distributed EW use cases and associated functional requirements to motivate the need for a distributed resource manager architecture, and we identify the distributed resources to be managed. For future work, we suggest key focus areas and enabling technologies that can bridge the S&T gaps for the design of EW resource management.