The Georgia National Guard officially activated a new intelligence unit this month, the first of its kind in the Army, specifically tasked with electromagnetic warfare.
The 111th Electromagnetic Warfare Company was activated Saturday, June 7 as part of the Georgia National Guard’s 221st Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Battalion. The company’s four platoons will be specifically trained as electromagnetic warfare teams, according to its first commander, Capt. Caleb Rogers.
While Army intelligence formations like the 221st have long focused on human and signals intelligence gathering — the art of listening in on enemy secrets and data while making sure the enemy isn’t listening back — the new unit is the first of its kind to focus on offensive and direct electromagnetic warfare on the battlefield.
Rogers told Task & Purpose the 111th teams will have three main tasks that separate them from other intelligence units, which he classified as “support, attack, and protect.” The first is intercepting and tracking military and tactical data from enemy forces, a fairly typical intelligence task. But the teams will also be tasked with cyber attacks on enemy formations and active countering of remotely controlled drones and other devices.
Such tactics and skills are not new in the Army, which is rushing across its ranks to add cyber and drone-savvy soldiers, but a full-time company focused on those skills in an intelligence battalion is.
And though the 111th may be the first of its kind, it won’t be the last, said Lt. Col. Luke Gurley, the commander of the 221st Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Battalion, which was activated in 2007 with a focus on human and signals intelligence. New units like the 111th, he said, are part of an Army-wide transformation in electronic warfare on the battlefield.
Other National Guard intelligence battalions are also set to activate similar units.
The 221st has deployed to Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and other overseas missions, said Gurley.
Rogers said that given the constantly changing nature of electronic warfare, the doctrine around it is still being developed as the Army and National Guard move away from counterinsurgency missions and towards potential conflicts with high-tech adversaries.
“To be so close to Fort Eisenhower and the Army Cyber Center of Excellence, it allows us to plug into what they’re doing and work with them,” Rogers said.
Currently, the unit is developing its training plans with other Army units, Rogers said. It’s “always a constant mission” to keep modernizing, he said.
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