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TECH BRIEF - SIGINT
TECH BRIEF
SIGNALS INTELLIGENCE 101 BY DAVID HOPKINS
O
n March 20 2003 hundreds of US and coalition aviators prepared for what would be the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). The opening missions of the “shock and awe” campaign saw hundreds of aircraft attack the ‘Super-MEZ’ – the missile engagement zone protecting Baghdad and the Iraqi regime. Their targets were surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery batteries, as well as command and control installations. In the preceding years. through the first Gulf War of 1991 and the follow-on Operations Northern and Southern Watch, Iraqi forces had learned the consequences of keeping their anti-air systems static and became increasingly mobile, employing ‘shoot-and-scoot’ techniques to avoid the onslaught of coalition attacks. But while this provided a challenge to the coalition forces, they had a powerful weapon supporting their mission. In the weeks and months leading up to March 2003, a large intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) campaign had been collecting intelligence on the Iraqi forces, analysing their locations, plans and intent. A key part of this ISR effort was signals intelligence – or SIGINT – combining the capabilities of national space-based collectors with airborne collection platforms. SIGINT provided continuous updates as systems came online in new locations and threatened the air campaign above. While all this was happening, there was also significant effort being made in collecting and analysing communications intelligence – or COMINT – to identify leadership targets, their plans and intent. Overall, SIGINT made a significant contribution to the efforts to degrade the Iraqi antiair capability in Baghdad, paving the way for followon operations in and around the Iraqi capital. SIGINT is one of the many intelligence disciplines that feeds information into the intelligence cycle and comprises intelligence derived from electronic signals and systems such as communications, radars, and weapons systems. SIGINT is comprised of two main sub-disciplines – COMINT and
electronic intelligence, or ELINT. SIGINT provides intelligence on adversary capabilities, disposition, composition, actions, and intent. Demand for SIGINT has grown exponentially in the last decade, for its utility in understanding capability and intent of adversaries. As well as providing vital intelligence against the rise of terrorism, SIGINT is crucial in supplying 5th gen military platforms with the mission data they need to achieve advantage in the battlespace. SIGINT has its origins in the interception of German radio traffic in the early years of World War I, with the intercepted radio traffic providing insight into German plans and operations. Attempts to encrypt radio traffic led to cryptography becoming a central part of SIGINT analysis. Since the start of the Cold War, a significant number of space-based signals collection capabilities have been launched, collecting SIGINT alongside military air, land, and maritime-based capabilities. Militaries, governments, and nations rely on the ability to communicate to achieve their national security objectives, be it during peace, contest, or conflict, and much of this communication occurs using radio, satellite communications, telephone networks, or the internet, and all these means are vulnerable to interception. In fact, the more connected we become, the more opportunities there are for communications to be intercepted.
‘Since the start of the Cold War, a significant number of space-based signals collection capabilities have been launched’
