Information Operations:What It Is and Why It Matters

Presentation to AOC EW Asia 2014 ConferenceMr Jeff Malone

Defence Science and Technology Organisation (Australia)

Scope

• The Origins and Evolution of Information Operations

• The US Joint Approach to Information Operations

• The Role of Electronic Warfare within Information Operations

• Emerging Issues

The Origins and Evolution of Information Operations

Command Control Communications Countermeasures (C3CM)

• Emerged in the late 1970s

• Based on identified vulnerabilities in Soviet C3I systems

• Integrative operational concept

• Entailed both defensive and offensive actions

Operation DESERT STORM: The First Information War (?)

• First major employment of C3CM

• Also entailed major Psychological Operations activities

• Presented a range of synchronisation and deconfliction issues

Information Warfare (IW) and Command and Control Warfare (C2W)

• IW emerges in 1992 – initial definition TOP SECRET– Entailed strategic employment of Computer

Network Attack (CNA)

• C2W emerges in 1993 – “the operational employment of IW on the battlefield”– Adds Psychological Operations to the C3CM suite

of activities

– Like C3CM encompasses both offensive and defensive actions

The Limitations of IW/C2W and the Emergence of Information Operations (IO)

• Scope of IW/C2W problematic:– Only applicable in warfighting?

– Only applicable against the Command and Control target set?

– Only entails specified capabilities?

• By mid 1990s, IO emerges as a more encompassing term (initially in US Army)

• Instantiated in joint doctrine in 1998– Joint Publication 3-13, Information Operations

• IO remains the core term (in joint doctrine)

Trends in the Evolution of Information Operations

• From warfighting only to applicability across the spectrum of operations

• Expansion from C3I target set to human decision making more generally (including the systems which enable and support decision making)

• Expansion in the range of information-based capabilities to be integrated and deconflicted

The US Joint Approach to Information Operations

IO: US Joint Doctrinal Definition

• “The integrated employment, during military operations, of information-related capabilities in concert with other lines of operation to influence, disrupt, corrupt, or usurp the decision-making of adversaries and potential adversaries while protecting our own.”

Source: Joint Publication 3-13, Information Operations, 27 November 2012

Information-Related Capability (IRC)

• “A tool, technique, or activity employed within a dimension of the information environment that can be used to create effects and operationally desirable conditions.”

Source: Joint Publication 3-13, Information Operations, 27 November 2012

The Information Environment

Source: Joint Publication 3-13, Information Operations, 27 November 2012

Examples of IRCs

• Electronic Warfare (Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations)

• Cyberspace Operations

• Operations Security

• Military Deception

• Psychological Operations

• Kinetic Targeting

• (and many others)

Source: Joint Publication 3-13, Information Operations, 27 November 2012

The Role of Electronic Warfare within Information Operations

Electronic Warfare

• “Military action involving the use of electromagnetic and directed energy to control the electromagnetic spectrum or to attack the enemy.”

Source: Joint Publication 3-13.1, Electronic Warfare, 8 February 2012

Overview of Electronic Warfare

Source: Joint Publication 3-13.1, Electronic Warfare, 8 February 2012

Electronic Warfare and Other IRCs

• Cyberspace Operations– Can provide a pathway for attacks on wireless networks (or deny them)

• Operations Security– Electronic Protection contributes to overall defensive posture, from

platform to force level

• Military Deception– Both a channel for conveying deception message and countering adversary

deception activities

• Psychological Operations– Provides a channel for dissemination and blocking adversary dissemination

• Kinetic Targeting– Provides actionable targets for attack

• Intelligence Support (common to all the above)– Contributes to overall intelligence effort which supports planning,

operations and battle damage assessment/re-tasking

Emerging Issues

Access to Spectrum

Mobile Devices and Social Media

Precision Location and Timing

The Evolving Counter-IED Battle

Unmanned and Autonomous Systems

Directed Energy Weapons

Conclusion

EW-IO-Cyber-EMS OperationsConvergence and Synergies

Hotel Grand Chancellor Adelaide, South Australia, 18-19 August 2014