The need for cyber and electromagnetic activities Section 3 – Parity and pacing 1 1.9. Following Russian operations in eastern Europe and the Middle East; and China’s military activities worldwide, much has been discussed about regaining the initiative. Although NATO has been confident of its superiority there are areas where other nations have actually become peers, for example, where Russia and China have achieved this in relation to EMA, cyber and information activities. As a minimum they need only keep pace with NATO to maintain parity but could well be overmatching our capability.7 With the rapid acceleration of CEMA technology and capability, NATO’s lack of priority to produce up-to-date joint doctrine and policy has exacerbated the situation. 8 1.10. Russia’s Chief of Electronic Warfare Troops, General-Major Yuriy Lastochkin provides an example of how Russia is maintaining parity and moving towards overmatching our capabilities in an interview in April 2017. He said:9 “The entire system of measures of organizational development of Electronic Warfare Troops will substantially increase their contribution to winning superiority in command and control, and in employing weapons. The volume of effectively fulfilled missions in various strategic directions will grow by two to two and a half times and by 2020 will reach 85 percent. This in turn will become the basis of an effective air-ground electronic warfare system, capable of neutralizing the enemy’s technological advantage in the aerospace sphere and the information-telecommunications space.”9 7 For example, the impact of the WannaCry ransomware attack on the NHS in May 2017, or the December 2015 Ukraine power grid cyberattack. 8 Whilst no US joint doctrine exists, the US Army discussed CEMA in Army Field Manual (FM) 3-38, Cyber Electromagnetic Activities, however, that publication was not updated rather it was retired and replaced with FM 3-12, Cyberspace and Electronic Warfare Operations which describes CEMA as ‘the planning, integrating and synchronising activity for echelon corps and below’. 9 More information is available at https://russiandefpolicy.blog/2017/05/30/electronicwarfare-chief-interviewed-2/ 8 JDN 1/18