ACC deputy commander visits 350th SWW

  • Published
  • By Capt. Benjamin Aronson
  • 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla --  The 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing welcomed U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Russ Mack, deputy commander of Air Combat Command, to tour the wing and see how the Crows are supporting the Electronic Warfare (EW) mission for the DOD.
 
Mack’s visit afforded him the opportunity to learn firsthand about the wing, ongoing operations, its plans to expand through the activation of the future the 950th Spectrum Warfare Group at Robins AFB, GA, and the role EW plays in modern and future combat.
 
“By standing up the 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing, we have told our peer adversaries that we take this seriously,” said Mack. “If you want to mess with the DOD and United States military, then you’ve got to take us on head on.”
 
The visit highlighted key mission areas supported by the 350th SWW such as Crowd Flight Source Data (CSFD), which is the process of prioritizing the best data collected off all platforms on adversary systems and engineering that data to generate new capabilities to counter the adversarial threat.
 
“We can reach the level of the Spectrum speed we need, and we have to do that through the investment and prioritization of the CSFD, Electromagnetic Battlefield Management, Cognitive EW, data architecture and EW assessments,” said Mack. “If we don’t develop those capabilities, we’re going to be challenged. We can’t be sitting on terabytes of data for months at a time, we need to turn that data in minutes.”
 
Lt. Gen. Russell L. Mack received briefs on the 87th Electronic Warfare Squadron’s (EWS) COMBAT SHIELD, the lead EW assessment team for the U.S. Air Force, along with missions supported by the 16th EWS, 36th EWS and 513th EWS to include the Airborne Cooperative EW Integrated Reprogrammable Exchange (ACEWIRE), which accelerates reprogramming processes for the E-3G and the assets under its control.
 
The wing highlighted resources and requirements needed to grow the mission and develop EW capabilities for the Air Force and coalition partners. During the visit, Mack also concurred with the need to shift the mindset around EW from thinking of it as a supportive capability to one that can directly achieve commander objectives.  
 
“Every Airman from the youngest to the most senior needs to understand what’s going to take place in the EMS and in EW,” said Mack. “That is a critical skillset needed not just by the Air Force, but by everyone in the DOD and our industry partners.”
 
Mack joins the growing list of senior DOD officials to visit the 350th SWW since it activated in 2021, to gain an understanding of the wing’s critical role to achieving Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS) supremacy.
 
“Bottom line is we’ve got to invest in our people first and foremost, partnerships and capabilities,” said Mack. “The EMS must be at the core of everything we do -- whether it’s test, development, or the operational capability we have within the unit. We need to understand the EMS as the DOD, not just the Air Force, because if we don’t win in the EMS our peer adversary will.”