David Roza
As deputy commander of the 16th Air Force, the organization responsible for information warfare, Maj. Gen. Larry Broadwell has a difficult task explaining what he does to outsiders.
“It’s hard to really understand the importance of it,” Broadwell said March 4 at the AFA Warfare Symposium. “I was trying to explain this to my dad at the breakfast table one time, and he just wasn’t getting it.”
Broadwell’s father isn’t the only one; a 2024 report by the RAND Corporation said information warfare in the Air Force lacks clear roles and responsibilities, adequate resources, and a unifying identity, which can contribute to unclear expectations of what information warfare can do and how it fits into the joint force.
“Airmen cited a sense of paralysis related to this issue, noting, ‘without a [socialized] definition of IW, everyone in the USAF IW community is unsure of how to proceed, what it means, and what is expected of them,’” RAND wrote.
Information warfare involves using military capabilities in or through “the information environment” to affect adversary behavior and protect against adversary attempts to do the same. It encompasses several fields, including cyber operations, electromagnetic spectrum operations (EMSO), public affairs, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), and weather, but none of that really rolls off the tongue.
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