I received an oddly specific question today, and wondered what this community thinks. The question dealt with the utility of STORM--my favorite "campaign" model--for assessments involving electronic warfare. I'm generally not a fan of campaign models for a variety of reasons (OK..."not a fan" may understate the case), but it has been about two years since I dealt seriously with STORM in general and its application to electronic warfare in particular. So, I'm willing to plead a certain amount of ignorance. What's the state of this art?Any thoughts?
Merf
@Merf- I'm not a STORM expert but you've asked a pertinent question given the emphasis on our "Pivot" and the A2AD environment expected to be in that new region. If we are to turn strategy into scenarios upon which quantitative analysis can progress we have very little choice but to capture the effects of EW in a simulation such as STORM...our choices are extremely limited. That being said what remains is understanding how effects in the EW realm are translated into scenarios in STORM. EW has typically been the strength of models like SUPPRESSOR and EADSIM with enhanced survivability being the effect that translates up to a higher level. Given our understanding of those effects there is no reason that translation cannot be made to campaign models and hence provide us with campaign outcomes. The problem seems to be that we really don't understand the effects sufficiently at the lower level. The same can be said for new capability such as Cyber. Until someone can tell me that the probably of suppressing an enemy air defensive capability in this region can be estimated as X, I have limited business guessing at X and running it at the campaign level...but I did say limited. The problem here IS the problem Tell me your question...what are you trying to achieve through the EW analysis in STORM? (First principles...Read Marcus Aurelius Clarice, Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?) Do you just want to know if there is EW capability in STORM? Then the answer is yes. Do you want to know if a specific jammer has the power to jam a specific radar then the answer is no...wrong tool. Do you want to know if over the course of several days attacking certain air defenses with the enhanced survivability of certain jamming techniques is preferable to an approach that uses cheaper, less survivable capability, but more of it -- could produce better campaign outcomes...then STORM is probably your tool...
ReplyDeleteMooch--
DeleteYour response is approximately the same as that I gave the fellow who asked me "how good" STORM is in the area of EW (right down to the question of aggregating from "better" models, the inclusion of space and cyber in the discussion, etc...BE AFRAID of following my line of reasoning). The question was a VERY general inquiry with no specifics behind it, so I've treated it here as a question of whether anyone is actually using the tool (or another like it) to accomplish "good" EW analysis at the campaign level. I'm just the middle-man here.
So, let me ask the question differently...Is anyone at A9 or on the JS (ore elsewhere to your knowledge) using STORM effectively to illuminate issues in EW?
Anyway, I think we are in violent agreement. I am ALWAYS cautious when thinking about using a tool like STORM...there are things to learn from such tools, but the cost is very often too high (and growing exponentially with each addition of "fidelity") and far outweigh the gains. Of course STORM will never represent specific jammers and specific radars, receivers, etc. Or perhaps it is better to say "should" never..."will" is too large a word given the rampant tendency to pursue the chimera of fidelity.
Thanks for the response.
Mer