We used to have a saying in SOF, “don’t confuse enthusiasm with capability.”
Sure, laugh, but when I look at resumes from former IC and SOF folks, everybody mentions SI. We’ve even got careerfields in the military that think they’re going to take it on like a side gig. I’ll let you in on a secret, all that other stuff you spend all your time concentrating on is the side gig. SI is a full time job and it’s in demand. Add in EW and CYBER and it’s the whole mission.
That’s right, the Cold War is long over with the Soviets prancing around with Motorized Rifle Divisions. Maneuver around long enough and you would’ve just run into them, they were so big. A small ISR footprint could support huge task forces.
But for that past couple of decades it’s been about rooting out the enemy so you can choose how to deal with him. It might be a kinetic strike, a commando raid, or maybe something even more devious like making his fortune disappear from his bank accounts in the Caribbean or having a self driving delivery van run over his mother. Yes, we are smack dab in the age of intelligence, which has become the operation. Hence, so many “operators” wanting to say they did something else once they get out and are looking for jobs.
So, if you’re going to tell people you can do it, maybe you ought to learn a little about it.
Rohde & Schwarz have been in the comms receiver and direction finding business for 85 years. Why, just this fiscal year, they generated EUR 2.58 billion in revenue. They boast over 12,000 employees in 70 countries. Everyone looks to them. They know what they’re doing. So when they offer something titled, “Webinar: An Introduction to Direction Finding,” you take it. That is if you don’t want to sound like an idiot when you tell the chippy down at the pub who works for a TLA how you’re a one-man F3EAD cycle.
So go check out this intro to direction finding. And oh yeah, don’t let the EW and Cyber guys tell you that knowing the target language isn’t important. You can only do so much with externals.
