U.S. Army Giving Afghan Army WOLFHOUND Man-Portable SIGINT Intercept System

George I. Seffers

Signal Magazine

U.S. Army Provides Intelligence Systems to Afghanistan

August 12, 2014

Sometimes it is just not possible to fit all of the information from an interview into one article. That’s what blogs are for.

The Army program executive officer-intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors (PEO-IEW&S) office also is providing the Wolfhound man-portable signals intelligence system to the Afghan National Army (ANA). The 201st ANA Corps received the system and was trained on its use earlier this year at Forward Operating Base Gamberi. The Wolfhound will allow ANA soldiers to hear enemy radio communication and, as an improvement to the current system, it will tell Afghan troops the enemy’s location.

“Right now, Wolfhound is only in the Central Command area of responsibility. It’s a force protection capability. We have provided 30 of those systems to the Afghan National Army under a foreign military sales case since last October. They use it on a daily basis, and that’s going well,” reports Stephen Kreider, Army program executive officer-intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors (PEO-IEW&S).

The PEO-IEW&S team is supporting the ANA with other systems as well. “We are currently in execution of a foreign military sales case where we’re providing the Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment towers with electro-optical and infrared sensors and radar systems, and with some of our older and smaller aerostat balloon systems. We’re in the process of transitioning some of those capabilities and excess over to the Afghan National Army,” Kreider reports.

In other news, Kreider’s team is providing new position, navigation and timing (PNT) systems, also known as Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, to replace vulnerable receivers across the service. “GPS is becoming more and more vulnerable to jamming due to the use of commercial products. We’ve got a new PNT program coming out of the science and technology investments the last couple of years. It will go into a formal program next year that will completely replace that capability across all systems in the Army,” he states.

All of the services are moving toward “military code” signals from modernized GPS satellites to improve anti-jamming capabilities. Additionally, it will continue to provide critical positioning information for a time even if no satellite connection is available. “If you’re going into a tunnel, or if you’re in a jamming environment, you don’t lose the capabilities that are necessary for precision munitions, or necessary for location and for a common operating picture. It’s particularly important for communications and timing so that the radio systems can talk to each other and get in sync. They’re all dependent upon that capability,” Kreider says.