Above: Hypersonic weapons present a new challenge for EW.

Bradbeer maintains that future weapons engagements will present scant warning cues to platforms and will be delivered so fast that traditional man-in–the loop responses will be unable to cope with them. 
 
The development of weapons such as hypersonic missiles could place the advantage with the aggressor.  Certain current platforms, such as naval ships, rely on legacy command and control systems that are often based on human thinking, decision making and communication - thereby increasing the risk to them from new and evolving threats.

 
The key to countering these emerging threats will be to use machine learning to automate EW responses, maximising such defensive capability by exploiting every piece of information available to the platform: establishing and filling platform information gaps, using data to locate your position in someone else’s Kill Chain and then taking effective action to disrupt the Kill Chain.
 
“In future, we will need machines to interpret these indicators and assess the likely sequence of events.  The response could involve machine-led re-configuration of combat systems and initiation of countermeasures,” says Bradbeer.
 
Another essential element of future EW Operational Support will be incorporating cyber techniques into our toolkit in the same way that we have with traditional Electronic Countermeasures.
 
MASS’ experience in providing world-leading EW Operational Support services and solutions, including EW and Intelligence Mission data management, puts it at the forefront of developing solutions to support the evolving role of EW.
 
“We recognise the need to expand the current narrow range of electronic countermeasure technologies and incorporate disciplines like cyber.  At MASS, we have all the core skills in terms of traditional countermeasures expertise and we are working to develop our ability further to integrate cyber as part of Threat Vulnerability Analysis and Countermeasure Development,” said Bradbeer.