ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- Every year, the Director of National Intelligence, with support from the entire U.S. intelligence apparatus, publishes the Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community. The report outlines the most serious and direct threats to the interests of the United States. The most recent report, published in February 2024, outlines a world that is increasingly uncertain. Defined by a global order that is as fragile as it is nuanced, the annual threat assessment weaves a seemingly insurmountable web of global threats.
According to the assessment, "The convergence of these emerging technologies is likely to create breakthroughs, which could lead to the rapid development of asymmetric threats -- such as advanced UAVs -- to U.S. interests and probably will help shape U.S. economic prosperity."
Not surprisingly, understanding the threat environment is a foundational effort for the Army, and as the world continues to advance technologically, electromagnetic warfare is front and center.
The challenge of providing warfighters the capabilities necessary to overcome EW threats is met, day in and day out, by a team at Aberdeen Proving Ground that has been charged for over three decades with overmatching adversarial EW.
The process
The Army Reprogramming Analysis Team is a program office within the Communications-Electronics Command Software Engineering Center that is tasked with providing the Army EW mission software across a range of systems.
ARAT works with partners in the defense intelligence community to identify and analyze EW threats and reprogram functions of the systems on which warfighters rely.
For Eric Bowes, the ARAT program officer, an appreciation of the threat landscape is crucial in providing Soldiers with reliable mission software for EW systems.
"At the end of the day, the threat is the threat, and that's what drives this mission," Bowes said. "It really comes down to what threats are out there and what threats are we trying to identify, detect, degrade, deny, and defeat."
As program officer, Bowes oversees the entire ARAT office. Comprised of roughly 183 personnel, 75 of whom are Department of the Army Civilians, ARAT is the sole organization responsible for the Army's EW software reprogramming.
"I think first and foremost, we are protecting them [Soldiers] so that they can conduct the mission," Bowes said. "We accurately identify and account for the threats that are most lethal to their particular air or ground platform."
Bowes added that when accounting for the threats within the EW realm, ARAT considers the varying environments in which Soldiers operate. Someone leading a convoy in the Middle East faces a very different threat than a helicopter pilot operating in the Pacific.
Reprogramming is a cyclical process, and the ARAT mission requires expertise, fluidity, and feedback from the field. Though the work and requirements are extremely complex, the general process is defined by four primary steps.
The first step is to determine the threat, which usually occurs in one of two ways and can be applied to either a new threat or a modification of something known.
ARAT works closely with partners in the intelligence community and with users on the ground to understand threats.
Bill Hersey, the Aviation EW branch chief, said the initial determination is made through a multi-agency analysis.
Intelligence centers provide data, such as threat systems within a particular country, coupled with information from defense service intelligence production centers, such as specific weapons used by adversaries.
"We get the laydown from the DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency], and then we get the threat parametrics or signatures from the service production centers," Hersey said. "That gives us the information we need to do the reprogramming."
With an understanding of the threat, ARAT then determines the appropriate response.
During the second phase, the experts within ARAT balance Army priorities, user feedback and input, and any limitations of friendly systems to detect and counter the threat.
After determining their response, ARAT executes the third phase of the process, creating the reprogramming mission software. During this step, ARAT keeps warfighters on the ground at the forefront of what they do.
Whether it's Soldiers on patrol using the Counter Remote Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare System, commonly known as the Duke, or a helicopter pilot relying on threat detection systems, the step of creating the reprogramming mission software is paramount.
ARAT Terrestrial EW Branch Chief Demetrios Gourgoulianis, who leads the team responsible for systems like the Duke, believes one of his organization's strongest assets is its relationship with end users.
"There are task forces out in the CENTCOM area of responsibility that go out on patrols all the time," he said. "We have really great working relationships with them."
Gourgoulianis added that the ability to interface with the Soldiers on the ground is incredibly useful, especially as ARAT works to keep them safe.
With the threat determined and the response identified and created, the final step is distribution.
There are several avenues to get the product to the warfighter, and depending on the system and other variables, ARAT securely pushes reprogrammed products all over the world via the ARAT Army distribution portals. As the warfighter executes missions and uses the newly implemented mission software, they maintain contact with ARAT to offer anomaly reports and feedback.
This loop, between the ARAT team and Soldiers on the ground and in the air, allows for the continuous delivery of mission software threat updates which enables Soldiers to stay safe while accomplishing their mission.
The people
Within ARAT, there are a myriad of specialized roles; from Gourgoulianis and the Terrestrial EW Branch prepared to support Soldiers on the ground, to Hersey and the Aviation EW Branch helping to keep Soldiers in the air safe from enemy fire. From experts in the ARAT Signals and Intelligence Branch to specialists in the Infrastructure and Cybersecurity Branch.
The breadth of impact for warfighters is tangible.
With layers of expertise and a variety of roles, it could be easy to interpret ARAT as a compartmentalized organization with different people working on different things.
This interpretation lacks an understanding of the driving force that binds ARAT, which is support for Soldiers.
The ARAT team has an incredibly profound mission, and they know it.
For Eric Bowes, the ARAT Program Officer, that mission is always at the forefront.
"It is completely inspiring and motivating to know that you can wake up and go to work every day and have an immediate impact on the Soldier," he said. "We are very directly saving lives by the quality of our organization's output."