Resiliency by Retrograded Communication- The Revival of Shortwave as a Military Communication Channel
This work offers a potential solution for military forces to maintain communication in electronic warfare-saturated conditions, though it appears incremental by revisiting an older technology.
The paper addresses the vulnerability of modern military communication channels like SATCOM, VHF, and UHF to electronic warfare, proposing the revival of high frequency (HF) spectrum from the 1940s to enhance resiliency in such environments.
In the last three decades, the great powers have become increasingly dependent on satellite communication (SATCOM), very high frequency (VHF), and ultra-high frequency (UHF) providing high bandwidth line of sight (LOS) communications. These military communication channels lack resilience because an EW campaign can affect both VHF and SATCOM simultaneously. The 1940s preferred spectrum, high frequency (HF), with its different propagation patterns, offers an opportunity for military communication resiliency in the 21st century. The concept of retrograding could give an operational advantage and create the ability to sustain communication in electronic warfare (EW) saturated environment.