Lt. Col. Graham Williams, U.S. Army
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Life will almost certainly be extremely austere. Learning to be comfortable without being seriously miserable every single minute of every day will have to become a way of life for an Army on the battlefield that I see coming.
—Gen. Mark Milley, Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Time Is 0600/Execution Plus 22
I awoke from a deep sleep to hear chatter around me outside. I quickly donned my helmet and searched around the fighting position for my rifle. I heard a crack on the radio and an electronic voice announce: “SENSOR, SENSOR, SENSOR: VEHICLE APPROACHING FROM ONE-EIGHT-ZERO DEGREES.”
I sat up and peered out the camouflage net to the rear where I heard a muffled engine idle and stop. I assumed it was approaching one of our fighting positions or a sentry. The engine sped up and maneuvered through the dense pine woods where my company was dug in. We had grown accustomed to living underground in well-concealed fighting positions. The soldiers rarely went outside unless we knew there were aerial protection assets dedicated to our area. We called these movement windows, where in a very short period, we could move around freely. However, we were never protected from unmanned aerial vehicles, which were a serious threat in our area of operations.
I poked my head out the doorway of the earthen bunker we had constructed for the company command post and adjusted my eyes. I saw that it was an infantry squad vehicle rapidly approaching.
The vehicle stopped by our position and shut off. An NCO hurriedly jumped out with a 120-millimeter mortar round case in one hand.
“Capt. Carpenter?” the NCO asked me.
“Yes, that’s me,” I replied.
“Fantastic. Here’s a delivery from battalion. In the tube are papers, a thumb drive, communication and OPSEC instructions, and other correspondence. Have all questions or requests for information ready for the battalion in the next communication window,” The NCO started to turn and walk back to the vehicle.
“Uh … okay. Any word on replacement soldiers, supplies, or rations?” I sarcastically inquired.
“No idea, sir,” he said as he jumped into his vehicle. “I’m just a messenger and I gotta run. Good luck.”
The vehicle started up and the NCO sped away.
I crawled back into the command post and noticed most of the headquarters personnel asleep. I assumed that the first sergeant was awake but was avoiding emerging from his sleeping bag to face the cold morning air.
I heard his muffled voice ask, “Who the hell was that?”
“A runner from battalion,” I replied as I opened the mortar tube to dissect its contents. Inside were some printouts of intelligence reports, artillery information, communication security codes and instructions, a few acetate overlays, and a thumb drive.
Operations security (OPSEC) was of the utmost importance in this unit. Maneuver units and headquarters had to limit communications to dedicated bursts when we had dedicated protection assets to mask our electronic signature. We developed multiple reports, and each had a specific communication method. Short reports were ones that did not take a lot of time or data to transmit and included personnel, position, equipment status, etc. The long reports would be via different means and use more data and, in turn, a higher risk of enlarging the electromagnetic signature from our position. If compromised, we would have to relocate to a new defensive position. Or worse, we could be detected and attacked by the enemy in the area.
The first sergeant continued, “Well did he bring any cigarettes for the boys? Or toilet paper, batteries, rations, ammo—” I cut him off. “We cannot smoke out here anyway. So, no good that would do us.”
I examined the documents the runner provided. The artillery fire overlays were targets far beyond our defensive positions and there was no way we would have observed them due to the distance. The communication information included the comms windows we were to transmit over high frequency for radio checks and short reports.
The first sergeant sat up and looked at me. “Well? Anything good?”
He was a typical old soldier in a modern army. One could label him as a technophobe in that he was skeptical of the technological advances the Army had made. He disliked how the Army inundated the companies and soldiers with equipment that was too technical and not rugged for maneuver warfare. He ascertained that technology cannot seize and hold terrain. It was not as though he disliked change. Rather, over his seventeen-year career he experienced many generations of change, whether tactics, equipment, or personnel manning. The one constant, he always argued, was that regardless of who we are fighting and whatever the fight looked like, we would require water, food, batteries, and bullets.
“A lot of good info in here and a few things for the company executive officer,” I replied. “I need to figure out a way to get some power for my tablet and view the incoming messages from the battalion commander. It might be important.”
The first sergeant replied as he was getting up, “I will wake the team and later on today we can bring in all the leadership. That will allow you to digest the information and put out your guidance.”
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Later, the rest of the headquarters was awake and looking at the information inside the bunker. I wanted to take time to examine the contents and discuss it with my team. The difficulty we had was developing a plan with the information we had available. The battalion only emitted communications to the companies in bursts during the communication windows. This prevented us from easily asking questions and seeking guidance. The battalion commander had to be very articulate with his intent, which he usually recorded and placed on a thumb drive.
Present in the bunker was the fire support officer, company executive officer, first sergeant, an intelligence analyst, and the communications NCO. Also present was the electronic warfare platoon leader who was in our area of operations. We provided security for them and their equipment, but they reported directly to the battalion and brigade.
I spoke up. “Okay team, now that we looked at the information, let’s talk about it. We owe an update to the company leadership in a bit and an acknowledgement to battalion during the next communication window. At first glance, I do not see any plan to move from the defensive position. Which is good and bad. Remember, we went through this at the combat readiness training center. The plan is to execute a series of defensive positions against a potential attack and preserve the force for an engagement at a time and place of our choosing.”
The tactics made sense to me but were lost on the team, especially the platoon leadership. Everyone longed to be able to get out and move around a bit, but we were unable to do so because of the aerial detection threat. The maneuver plan was unorthodox and what we rehearsed with the battalion previously. It was a different method of fighting that was adopted by our division commander. He knew that some of the tactics, techniques, and procedures maneuver forces used in the past were risky and exposed the fighting capability of the elements. Our adversaries had studied our tactics and fighting framework and knew our weaknesses. We anticipated enemy sensors picking up our movements and electromagnetic signatures and then engaging us before we had a chance to attack.
I continued, “I want to discuss the intelligence reports. Jones, did you have a chance to examine the information?”
Jones was the intelligence analyst assigned to the company. Having an intel analyst was not a new concept, but from my understanding, the Army had gone back and forth on giving the capability to the company. The bottom line was the companies struggled to keep up with the dizzying array of personnel, equipment, and regulatory requirements, so Army leadership decided to add more capability and staff to the company headquarters.
Jones spoke up, “The most important item was the assessment from the attack we heard at dusk yesterday to our north. That was a local national defense force. The bottom line is they became complacent with their OPSEC and signals discipline, leading to their detection and compromise. Their soldiers were outside their fighting positions, they had numerous vehicles moving outside the movement window, and their communication transmissions were outside dedicated communication windows. Our own intelligence sensors detected a personal device being used as well. The result was catastrophic.”
“Can you elaborate?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” he replied. “Think of the attack as coming in waves. The first wave is uncrewed aerial vehicles used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance detection. These will most likely be commercial off the shelf and a variant of a quadcopter. These little buggers will be sent out in swarms to acquire our positions. Once they find a potential target, there will be a flood of electronic emissions in the area. I believe this is an attempt to overwhelm our emitters and distract us from determining the direction of attack. Also, it’s to prevent us from communicating with our higher headquarters.
“Then there will be civilian clothed shock troops on dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles in the area. Their task is to confirm or deny the positions of headquarters elements and seek targets of opportunity. It is my understanding that the local national HQ was found because there was a poorly camouflaged vehicle next to it. These mobile shock troops were reported as not engaging the positions but circling them as if to look for bypass routes. Concurrently, the signals intelligence ceased and after a slight lull, they used a weaponized UAV with loitering ammunition to eliminate the company headquarters.”
“Man …,” the first sergeant exclaimed. “Eliminate how?”
Jones continued, “Well, in this case the report stated they used a weaponized Lancet drone and kamikazed it into the HQ bunker.”
I looked around the bunker at the faces of the headquarters and noticed we all were thinking the same thing. First, how do we defend against that? And second, this conflict is finally becoming real.
I broke the silence. “My concern is that could be the first wave and if so, what would the second wave contain?”
The fire support officer chimed in. “Long-range artillery fire and then maneuver elements, sir. In some of the artillery products, there are long-range targets deep within the enemy’s AO that, I assume, are targeting their artillery positions. Also, we need to ensure we have final protective fires ready in front of our battle position to protect us.”
“With what?” the first sergeant exclaimed. “All we have is company mortars.”
“I have something to add,” the electronic warfare officer added. “We have sensors in our AO that we can use to our advantage.”
“Go ahead,” I instructed him.
“Well sir, granted some of these are brigade-level assets, but we would have the first indication since they are collocated with your company. First, we have the SIREN emitters that flood the AO with electronic signature and artificial intelligence generated traffic. We are instructed to turn them on at varying intervals throughout the day. To jam enemy comms, we have the multifunction electronic warfare air pod that flies with the brigade’s unmanned aircraft system during dedicated movement times. For detection of communication signals, your soldiers have dismounted counter-electronic warfare backpacks that can be turned on during times when no other assets are available. If we integrate these in with your defensive position, we might be able to detect an attack.”
The company XO spoke up. “Additionally sir, we have a few Stinger missiles and three Bluehalo Titan antidrone machines that we can distribute to the fighting positions as needed. The only issue we run into is batteries.”
Batteries. That’s all we ever talked about. Power generation and the lack of a universal battery was a never-ending issue. The company only has small solar chargers and a run-quiet one kilowatt generator that does not have enough power to charge the never-ending collection of dead batteries. An austere environment and not having vehicles forward to augment charging capabilities led to some changes in how we operated. To adapt, we powered down our night vision devices to a few fighting positions and we turned our low emitting radios off and had leaders communicate in person to their soldiers. We turned on our high frequency radio to communicate with battalion only during communication windows. The Army had done a fine job giving us an array of equipment, but each one had its own unique power source.
“I’m aware of the issue with batteries,” I replied.
“If I may continue, sir,” said the XO, “There was not a lot of information from the logistics products from battalion other than some guidance regarding maintenance. During the next movement window, they will drop off supply clusters of rations and water, which we are to distribute and then cache near our positions. Since we have a small number of vehicles forward with us, we are limited as to how much maintenance we can do. This, coupled with the fact we cannot emerge from our fighting positions during certain periods, prevents us from doing maintenance at all.”
Just then the radio on the electronic warfare officer’s radio broke the silence. A robotic voice announced, “SENSOR, SENSOR, SENSOR: INCOMING ROUNDS FIVE KILOMETERS AT THREE-HUNDRED AND FIFTY DEGREES.”
We waited for the impact that landed to our north. This location was the local national military unit that had been attacked previously. Inside the bunker, we all cringed and waited for an impact near us that never came. After the rounds impacted, there was silence, and we sat still until nothing else was heard from the sensor.
“I have a few thoughts, sir,” the first sergeant chimed in, breaking the silence.
“Go ahead,” I replied.
“We are stuck in these fighting positions unable to move outside unless dedicated movement windows. Some of the soldiers are struggling with the pressure but the good thing is we are unable to move them to the rear. So they ain’t going nowhere ... I recommend that we use this time for weapons maintenance and after we brief the platoon leadership, we conduct some sort of reaction drill mimicking the attack that intelligence briefed. Even if we did it over radio using the communications windows, this will take their minds off how miserable they are.
“Also, we have the .50 caliber drone common remotely operated weapon station (CROWS) system we can use to our advantage. If under attack, we can send it out as our eyes and ears to let us know where the enemy is coming from. The only issue with this is—” “Batteries?” I replied. “Good feedback from all of you. I am going to use this time to relisten to the battalion commander’s guidance, develop a plan, and prepare questions for the battalion staff commo. When is the next comms window?”
“In exactly one hour; we have a fifteen-minute transmission window,” he replied.
“Roger. Let’s bring in all the unit leadership in two hours.” I provided some instructions to the team and the meeting ended.
The Time Is 0530/Execution Plus 23
I had a few hours to reflect after my brief to the platoon leadership and my backbrief to the battalion commander using a recorded message. I thought about the current conflict the company was in and how some of the older NCOs told the younger leaders about the old way or the way things used to be. Part of me believed they used their experiences as a method to justify how unprepared we as an Army were for the current fight.
This conflict was different because the enemy’s tactics prevented us from freely moving through the terrain either mounted or dismounted. We were unable to engage the enemy at a time and place of our choosing. Although the Army had planned for it, we struggled to understand the environment we would face against a threat that matched our capability.
In preparation to fight a peer adversary, the Army invested an incredible amount of energy into acquiring technologically advanced equipment and weaponry designed to outmatch our opponents. However, the Army did not anticipate hostilities against an enemy that studied our way of fighting and developed a method of fighting to exploit our weaknesses. We discovered that the technology we relied on to provide us with a tactical advantage was also vulnerable to cyber and electromagnetic attacks. The Army developed into a data-centric fighting force but had to adapt when operating in a contested environment. This adaptation manifested itself in operational security and protection of command-and-control nodes and fighting forces.
Despite this, I realized it was not all bad. What the soldiers and leaders of the company excelled at was ingenuity, their ability to work as a team, and falling back on their training when technology fails them. They are still proficient at engaging the enemy with their primary weapon systems.
Just then, I heard a break over the radio of the familiar robotic alarm system, “SENSOR, SENSOR, SENSOR: DRONE APPROACHING SEVEN HUNDRED METERS AT NINE-ONE DEGREES.”
I felt a panic. I quickly got on the radio and called the platoons in their battle positions to see if I could raise anyone on comms, “Any station this net, this is Alpha 6, over. Any station this net, this is Alpha 6, over.”
Nothing heard. I instructed the communications sergeant to continue trying to hail someone.
The headquarters element in the bunker started to move around and man radios, tablets, and grab their weapons.
The first sergeant moved next to me as we peered out the camouflage netting facing east.
“Listen,” he stated as he held his finger up to his mouth. “Gents, hold still. Stop moving,” he told the headquarters element.
From the east we could hear a faint buzzing of two drones slowly moving through the woods. One of the drones was out in front of the other and they were spaced apart by one to two hundred meters. They appeared to be working in tandem, seeking signature on the ground.
“If a drone is nearby, doesn’t that mean that the operator is also?” the commo NCO whispered.
“Not necessarily,” I replied. “They have the ability to operate from a ground control station farther away, which means there is a person out there somewhere, but we cannot see them.”
A voice cracked on the radio, “Alpha 6 this is 1-6, over. The lead drone is approaching our position. We will attempt to use the drone buster to disable it, over.”
I moved over to the radio and replied, “Roger, just remember to wait until it is over your position to engage it and ensure that both are disabled, over.”
The platoon leader acknowledged.
I moved back to my position and grabbed my tablet. I started typing a report to send to the battalion and was trying to decide whether it met the criteria to break the communications window. Transmitting too early would cause us to emit an electromagnetic signature and cue the enemy onto our position.
“Alpha 6, Alpha 6,” the radio burst with the electronic warfare platoon leader’s frantic voice.
“Go ahead, over,” I replied.
“Signals report to follow … we have a flood of activity coming in from the sensors. We are using the interpreter to figure out what it means. Stand by, over,” he replied.
I became increasingly nervous and was thinking about what would happen next. What will happen if our positions are discovered? We will have to displace and withdraw before we are engaged by the enemy.
Just then, a soldier with a drone buster emerged from underneath the ground two hundred meters from the headquarters’ position. He had another soldier with a rifle aimed at the lead drone on his flank taking a knee. The drone acquired the individual and hovered. As it did, the drone dropped out of the air and fell to the ground. One of the soldiers grabbed it and returned to their fighting position. Soon after, another team emerged from an adjacent position to engage the second drone but was unsuccessful. After losing contact with the lead drone, the second drone quickly ascended to the treetops and retrograded back east.
“Commo sergeant, I need to send a situation report to the battalion.” I handed him my tablet. “Break the comms window and transmit these messages via high frequency.”
“Roger, sir,” he replied.
I turned to the first sergeant, “I think that was more than just a reconnaissance patrol. We need to be ready. I am going to run to the platoon positions and give them an update. Ensure battalion gets the situation report.”
“Roger,” he replied.
I donned my helmet, grabbed my rifle, and emerged from the fighting position. I made my way to the platoon position that destroyed the drone. In it was a soldier holding the drone, who was very proud of his kill. He was holding the drone as if he was restraining a wild animal.
“Good job, guys. But make sure we are ready for anything coming after it,” I instructed them. They acknowledged and I moved on.
I ran to the other platoon positions and gave them an update and told them to monitor their radios and be ready.
Finally, I made my way a few hundred meters to the rear to the electronic warfare platoon position and jumped into their dugout.
“Give me an update,” I instructed the lieutenant.
“We have been sifting through the electronic signatures that flooded the area as you see here,” he said holding up a tablet and showing me a graph. “To be honest, the traffic is a mix of all sorts of data to overwhelm our sensors to confuse us. We are in contact with the brigade’s high accuracy detection and exploitation system (HADES), which does signals intelligence collection, and they cannot make anything of it.”
Just as we were talking, the data on the tablet went from a spike to a flat line. It seemed as if the flood of information stopped.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I have no idea sir. But I remember something like this happening in the intelligence report from earlier. If this is an attack, we have a few things that can help us. We have the SIRENS that are in place. They can help us drown out our electronic signature. From here, we can remotely increase their traffic flow and do the same thing the enemy did to us.”
“Okay, let’s do it and make sure you keep me informed. I am going back to the headquarters position. I recommend you guys get ready to retrograde to the rear if an attack does come. The brigade cannot afford to lose this equipment.”
As I was running back to the headquarters position, I noticed faint engine noises coming from the wood line to the east. I took a knee behind a tree to listen. There emerged five to six dirt bikes and ATVs circling the perimeter of the company’s positions. The operators were wearing civilian clothes and had no signs of weapons. One ATV stopped and I noticed the passenger had what looked like a controller device in his hand. The ATV then spun around and headed in the direction it came.
I ran from the tree to the headquarters position and jumped in. As I did, I heard gunfire in the distance which sounded like one of the platoon positions engaging one of the dirt bikes.
“What the hell is going on out there?” the first sergeant asked.
“I think they are targeting us!” I exclaimed. “I need to send an update to battalion.”
As I grabbed the radio receiver we heard the familiar robotic voice: “SENSOR, SENSOR, SENSOR: INCOMING ARTILLERY, INCOMING ARTILLERY.”
To be continued …
Note 
Lt. Col. Graham Williams, U.S. Army, is a former infantry officer turned cyber officer who works as a J-35 planner in the Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber (Army). His assignments include the 101st Airborne Division, 10th Mountain Division, and the 4th Infantry Division. He also worked as a J-35 planner at U.S. Cyber Command.
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