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Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Getting Lost in the Crowd

If you can't hide the fleet, get lost in a crowd of fleets.

Huh:

The U.S. Navy has been quietly developing what could be one of the most important, transformative, and fascinating advances in naval combat, and warfare in general, in years. This new electronic warfare "system of systems" has been clandestinely refined over the last five years and judging from the Navy's own budgetary documents, it may be operational soon, if it isn't already. This secretive new electronic warfare "ecosystem" is known as Netted Emulation of Multi-Element Signature against Integrated Sensors, or NEMESIS.

NEMESIS is not just some 'paper program.' From publicly available, but obscure documents we've collected, it's clear that, for years, the Navy has been developing and integrating multiple types of unmanned vehicles, shipboard and submarine systems, countermeasures and electronic warfare payloads, and communication technologies to give it the ability to project what is, in essence, phantom fleets of aircraft, ships, and submarines. These realistic-looking false signatures and decoys have the ability to appear seamlessly across disparate and geographically separated enemy sensor systems located both above and below the ocean's surface.

That's not so impressive, people still think we have a Mediterranean 6th Fleet just over the horizon.

Seriously, if NEMESIS works that will screw with an enemy kill chain. And is much better than the decoy emitters I suggested (with a nod to Iranian practice in the 1980s tanker war to defend their oil exports from Iraqi air attacks).

I don't know if it can make our big ships safe enough to get close to enemy shores--the Mark I eyeball will still spot the difference between a real fleet and an electronically simulated fleet--but while maneuvering at a distance the enemy may waste a lot of shots shooting at phantoms.