Information Operations: What It Is and Why It Matters Presentation to AOC EW Asia 2014 Conference Mr 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 Operations Convergence and Synergies Hotel Grand Chancellor Adelaide, South Australia, 18-19 August 2014