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In this episode of "From The Crow’s Nest," host Ken Miller is joined by Colonel Michael Middents and Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Cox at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia to celebrate the activation of the 950th Spectrum Warfare Group and the 17th Electronic Warfare Squadron.
Lieutenant Colonel Cox highlights how Air Force leadership is beginning to recognize the historic neglect of electronic warfare within its ranks.
He explains that only recently have the Air Force and DOD started investing in strengthening cohesion and uniting these critical military components. Colonel Minutes concurs, adding that the Air Force has untapped growth potential in the realm of electronic warfare, signaling an exciting new chapter for the service.
To learn more about today’s topics or to stay updated on EMSO and EW developments, visit our homepage.
He explains that only recently have the Air Force and DOD started investing in strengthening cohesion and uniting these critical military components. Colonel Minutes concurs, adding that the Air Force has untapped growth potential in the realm of electronic warfare, signaling an exciting new chapter for the service.
To learn more about today’s topics or to stay updated on EMSO and EW developments, visit our homepage.
Creators & Guests
What is From the Crows' Nest?
Featuring interviews, analysis, and discussions covering leading issues of the day related to electromagnetic spectrum operations (EMSO). Topics include current events and news worldwide, US Congress and the annual defense budget, and military news from the US and allied countries. We also bring you closer to Association of Old Crow events and provide a forum to dive deeper into policy issues impacting our community.
Ken Miller (00:09):
Welcome to from the Crows Nest Podcast on electromagnetic spectrum operations or EMSO. I'm your host, Ken Miller, director of Advocacy and Outreach for the Association of All Crows. You can connect with me on LinkedIn or you can email me at host at from the crows nest.org. Thanks for listening. In this episode, I'm bringing you my conversation with Colonel Michael Mittens and Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Cox. I met both gentlemen last week during a visit to Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. As listeners will know, we talk a lot about the vision, mission, and growth of the US Air Force's three 50th Spectrum Warfare Wing. Last week, the Wing conducted the activation ceremony of the nine 50th Spectrum Warfare Group led by Colonel Mitts and the 17th Electronic Warfare Squadron under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Cox. The ceremony marks yet another milestone in the growth of the three 50 Spectrum warfare wing, and it really showcases how the US Air Force is transforming its approach to EMSO.
Ken Miller (01:09):
Now, before we get to my guests, we are recording this on Wednesday, November 6th, of course, the day after the presidential election. As everyone knows by now, Donald Trump has been elected for a second non-consecutive term. It looks like a much more resounding win than many, including myself anticipated. As of this recording, Trump has the necessary 277 electoral votes. I think he's up to 297 now with results still coming in from swing states like Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada, where he is leading in all three states. So the victory certainly materialized faster than many expected, and it'll be an interesting few weeks as the new Trump administration begins to take shape. Of course, leaders of all the federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, will take shape. So there'll be a lot of developments here to cover in the coming weeks in Congress. It appears that the Republicans have flipped control of the Senate.
Ken Miller (02:09):
They have about 52 seats now. This was generally expected given the number of seats that the income and Democrats were defending, but it also looks that the Republicans also have control of the House of Representatives that is still uncertain, but that is at least what the votes currently are predicting from an A OC perspective. Of course, we've said this before, we're bipartisan or nonpartisan. We don't endorse any candidates. We don't endorse any party. We'll work with everyone and anyone interested in advancing EW. And so we have a lot of issues to address in our field alone, and we look forward to working with the incoming administration as well as Congress, especially as it pertains to leadership in DOD annual defense budget, and of course America's role in current conflicts in Ukraine. Middle East, of course the Indo-Pacific region. From a congressional perspective, though, all four of the co-chairs of the congressional EEW working group were reelected.
Ken Miller (03:08):
Congressman Don Bacon in Nebraska had the closest race, but they all won relatively easily. That includes also Rick Larson from Washington State, Austin Scott from Georgia, and Chrisy Houlahan from Pennsylvania. We've also been watching the North Carolina First District race between incumbent Democrat Don Davis and retired US Army Colonel and former A OC President Lori Buckhouse. At this time, the race look was too close to call, but Lori Buckhouse was trailing by about 1.5% or about 5,000 votes in the most recent release. So obviously it'll be weeks before we have a complete picture and we'll be discussing developments in more detail in the future. But I did want to bring you this rather surprising development. Without further delay, I want to bring you my conversation with Colonel Middents and Lieutenant Colonel Cox. Alright, I am here with Colonel Michael Middents and Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Cox. Gentlemen, thank you for joining me here. I'm from the Crows Nest from Robins Air Force Base.
Colonel Michael Middents (04:07):
Thanks for
Ken Miller (04:07):
Having us. Yeah, appreciate it.
Ken Miller (04:09):
As I mentioned at the top of the show, I'm here at Robins Air Force Base for the activation ceremony of the nine 50th Spectrum Warfare Group and the 17th Electronic Warfare Squadron. So Colonel Middents, you are now commander of the nine 50th and Lieutenant Colonel Cox. You are the commander of the 17th. So I wanted to have you both on the show. We were here last year and I believe I interviewed you as well because of the 87th attachment that came out that started. So this is a year anniversary, but it's also a mark of an extraordinary accomplishment in the course of year. So we wanted to kind of talk a little bit about the mission where the three 50 Spectrum warfare wing through your organizations is heading, and of course, kind of update our listeners on the progress the Air Force is making in addressing. ew. So gentlemen, thank you for joining me. So Colonel Min, I wanted to start with you. I wanted to give you a chance to kind of tell our listeners a little bit about you, where you've come from and just the accomplishment of being named the commander of the group today.
Colonel Ryan Cox (05:20):
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. So my background started off in B 52. So as far as electronic warfare is concerned, I typically look at it from a self-protect type perspective. I look at how electronic warfare allows me to accomplish something, in my case, getting a bomb to a target, right? Lieutenant Colonel Coxin actually started in the same squadron way back in the day as lieutenant, so we've known each other for a minute here. Within my career, I spent a lot of time at Barill Air Force Base in Louisiana, and then two tours through Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota as well. So conventional time, nuclear time, and then when I'm not doing B 52 operations, I typically try and find myself somewhere in the international and diplomacy realm. I've got a year in Estonia at a Baltic Defense College, two years in Germany working at the European Command, J five and eight, and then after that going up to Boston to their Fletcher School of Diplomacy, which is a great experience working for OSD policy studying the Ukraine war. So my background is varied in that way with electronic warfare, always kind of weaving throughout that career, and that's how I was able to land here today.
Ken Miller (06:17):
You have a new commander of the three 50 Spectrum warfare ring, Colonel Fenner, Larry Fenner. He was just named a commander back in July of this year, B 52 background himself, and he was just interviewed in our journal of Electrode Magnetic Dominance, the JED Magazine for the month of October, and he'll be at the A OC convention. But you shared that background. I was also interested to see you had the background of being in Estonia, which is one of my favorite places to visit in the world, and I hope to go back repeatedly. So it was very interesting background. Have you been to Robbins Air Force Base before or it's first visit, first time. It's a great community down here. I enjoy coming down here a couple of times a year, so it's really great to have you here. Really congratulations on the accomplishment of being named Commander of the nine 50th Group. So Colonel Middents, you mentioned obviously with your ascension of command of the nine 50th group as part of the three 50th Spectrum Warfare Wing, the Wing received a new commander back in July of this year, Colonel Larry Fenner, who also has B 52 experience. So you kind of share that perspective on EW question with that. How does that impact, I think, the progress of the growth of the three 50, having that kind of common experience with the B 52 background in the Air Force?
Colonel Ryan Cox (07:42):
I'd say there's kind of twofold here. So one side is there's a lot of mutual understanding and a mutual approach. We've come from a similar community. Colonel Fenner also is somebody who's been part of my career previous to this in two different assignments, and so we also know each other. But what I found very interesting here is while we might have that bomber Self-Protect approach to electronic warfare, the group that we're building out is also bringing in other electronic warfare officers from other communities such as the EEC one 30, the RC 1 35 variants, fighter backgrounds among others. And so whereas my boss and I and now my squadron commander, Lieutenant Colonel Cox, read from a very similar page, we get a lot of really good inputs from these other communities as well, looking at electronic warfare from maybe a perspective that we hadn't considered before, and it really enriches the approaches that we have and the considerations that we have as we try and get this mission done.
Ken Miller (08:27):
Lieutenant Colonel Cox wanted to bring you in to give you the opportunity to introduce yourself a little bit. You were from the Crows Nest last year at this time. I was down here because of the activation of the 87th attachment. So you year into that and now already have activated the Squadron 17 Squadron. So congratulations on that. Many of our listeners might already know you from this past year, but for those who are listening for the first time, tell us a little bit about yourself and your rise to where you are at today.
Colonel Michael Middents (08:58):
Sure. Yeah. So I'm also a B 52 electronic warfare officer. Started at Barksdale Air Force Base and then had an opportunity to go up to Minot Air Force Base as well and serve with the bomber barons and the Ironman up in Minot, North Dakota. Spent some time at the Global Strike Command headquarters as the command Electronic warfare officer and the Weapons and Tactics flight chief, and then headed out to the National Airborne Operations Center and off at Air Force Base to be their plans and programs director for some of the continuity operations out in US stratcom. And then I got a unique opportunity to go to the Spectrum warfare Wing to stand up its operations directorate and its intelligence director at the A three and a two. And then after I was there for about a year, the former wing commander, Colonel lov knew that we needed to start building the nine 50th.
Colonel Michael Middents (09:47):
He asked for me to come out to Robins Air Force Base and to stand up two detachments, the three 50th Spectrum Warfare Wing detachment one, which is now the nine 50th Spectrum Warfare Group, as well as the 87th Electronic Warfare Squadron detachment one, which is now the 17th. So interesting anecdote, the Wing commander referred to me as a space monkey. He said, you're a party of one starting two organizations. Good luck if you make it. Congratulations. And if you don't, I'm sorry. So the amount of trust and faith that he entrusted to get this mission off the ground is something I'm very grateful for.
Ken Miller (10:22):
One of the most challenging aspects of my job here as director of advocacy for the A OC and Podcast is not having military experience. I can tell you that listening to all the groups, wing groups, squadron numbers, I don't quite understand how the organization works. And so I wanted take a few Middents just to help our listeners piece together where everything fits, particularly within the three 50 Spectrum warfare wing, which is based on Eglin Air Force Base. And then we'll talk a little bit about where we're at today, but how does the group fit in, the squadron fit in with the group and so forth. And kind of help us paint a picture on that. So I'll come over to you Colonel Middents,
Colonel Ryan Cox (11:04):
Right? So I'll work it top down. So within the Air Force, the Wing is going to be kind of a parent organization for several subordinate organizations. In this case, the three 50th Spectrum Warfare Wing is the parent organization for three different groups. With those groups, we have obviously three different missions. One of them is waveform development, so I like to call it the black magic that goes into those black boxes and jams or protects, those kinds of things. The other group is going to be one that's more operationally focused, trying to go out and support real world operations, the air operation centers that are out there, et cetera. And then there's my group and we're going to be an assessments focused group. So with everything that we're doing with the waveform development, with the tactics that we're developing in those real-time operations, are we actually accomplishing what we think we are or are we as good as we think we are?
Colonel Ryan Cox (11:44):
And then to give the war fighters confidence as well that when they go out and they turn on that black box, something's going to happen. That's actually in effect, worthwhile, right? So they're not so dependent on those kinetics moving the throttle and the stick as much as they can rely on some of those other systems that are out there. So those are the three different groups that we have. I'm up at Robins here with my nine 50th, and then we've got two more groups down at Eglin, so subordinate to those groups. We're going to have about four to six different squadrons within each group, and they're going to have really mission essential functions that they perform within those groups as well. So in my case, I've got the 17th EWS here with Lieutenant Colonel Cox. I'll let him talk a little bit more in detail. But in general, he's going to be looking at large force type operations, whether it's exercises or combat operations, trying to give feedback such that the subsequent launches are always going to be more effective than the ones previous were. And I've also got the 87th Electronic Warfare Squadron down at Eglin Air Force Base. They're in charge of the combat shield mission that I'm sure anybody with the A OC familiarity is familiar with. That's an assessment cell that goes out and looks at the components within specific aircraft to make sure that they're functioning properly.
Ken Miller (12:43):
Lieutenant Colonel Cox, talk a little bit about the 17th EWS and kind of what the vision is for this squadron.
Colonel Michael Middents (12:51):
Yeah, absolutely. So the 17th Electronic Warfare Squadron, the bumper sticker for the squadron is to verify the cumulative effectiveness of our forces in the electromagnetic spectrum for sustained combat operations, as well as the large force test and training events that occur in preparation for those sustained combat operations. So when we have talked to a number of other general officers about our mission, there was a very big emphasis on being able to not just assess for testing or just to assess for training, but to actually assess to support the war fighter. So our focus is to be able to assess how a strike package has accomplished a mission on the first night of combat, and then be able to analyze the information that was uncovered in order to make sure that the subsequent NI two that Colonel Mins was talking about goes better than night that night one happened.
Colonel Michael Middents (13:47):
Now of course, like with most militaries, we spend a preponderance of our time in training status as we prepare for war. So we are going to be spending our time preparing for war by being a critical part of many large force exercises that go on throughout the world, whether those are exercises in different combat and commands such as Indo Paycom or ucomm, or whether there are large force exercises that have happened here, like some of your red flag exercises that happen out analysis Air Force Base. We've been asked by the command and commands in previous years to help with the planning, execution and analysis and debrief of their exercises because they said that they've had some challenges keeping spectrum experts in their organization. So they said if your organization was able to help us out with that, it would really make a big difference. So the 17th is there to make sure that we can help those exercises as well as the common operations when they come about.
Ken Miller (14:41):
Now, in your opening remarks, you kind of related some lessons learned from growing up in football. You want to practice as you play, you want to train as you fight today, and we talk about that a lot in the podcast about we have to train in realistic scenarios. You have a pacing thread out there that's challenging enough to keep up with, let alone incorporate that into training. I think one of the most exciting things that I've seen here over the last few years is with the establishment of the spectrum, warfare wing is kind of a very clear, and I would say renewed dedication by Air Force leadership for EW all the way down. I think you see that through the actions of the spectrum warfare wing. But you mentioned how Air Force leadership has really recognized that EEW has been historically neglected. Can you share a little bit about just, you were mentioning the importance of training that's really kind of the foundation for everything that the Air Force wants to do, and that's falling onto this wing a lot in terms of what you're trying to accomplish. So talk a little bit just about how much training in EEW has changed in the Air Force through the spectrum warfare wing,
Colonel Michael Middents (16:01):
The threat environment changes fast. Even when I was lieutenant, there was a quote in one of the readings that we had where they said the change of pace and conflict happens no place quicker than in the electromagnetic spectrum because that's where you have countermeasures and counter countermeasures that are developed. So as those changes occur in the threat environment, our capabilities must change as well. And whichever force lags more in the spectrum is going to generally be the one that finds themselves in unfortunate situations in combat General Kelly, the former commander of a CC was paraphrased as saying the electromagnetic spectrum is not a domain like your air domain, your C domain, your land space or cyber domain, but it is rather the terrain through which each of your domains must traverse in order to produce desired results. So along those lines, the force that is able to preserve its own freedom of maneuver in the spectrum while also denying the adversary's capability of operating in the spectrum is going to be the victor.
Colonel Michael Middents (17:04):
And so his kind of summary with that was, if we lose in the spectrum, we're going to lose in combat and we're going to lose quickly. So when you apply that to the training, there are a lot of advancements that are happening with many pacing challenges across the world, and the way that we have historically been able to keep up with the enemy was acquiring capabilities that were available. Those procurement methods are no longer viable. And so now we are finding ourselves in a situation where we may have to pivot a large force of our training to some of the virtual world in order to make sure that all of the exquisite capabilities that we have are going to work together when we have them operating at the same time. So while my squadron isn't going to be looking too much in the virtual world, we are looking to stand up another squadron in the nine 50th whose job is to verify the cumulative effectiveness via modeling and simulation, and I'm super excited about some of the things they're going to be getting after.
Colonel Michael Middents (17:59):
I'm partially jealous that I won't be able to get after some of those because it's really going to be, I think the big difference maker and not only the group of the entire wing, there are so many capabilities we have in the spectrum that you just can't do in real life because the vulnerabilities are there where your adversary could potentially see them. So the only way where you can really practice altogether is to do it in the virtual environment that is also very expensive, more expensive. I think most people would know too to get those capabilities in the virtual environment. But that is where I foresee some of our most advanced training and tactics development happening in the virtual world. And we are excited to work with our partners not only within the United States Air Force Warfare Center, but also in the joint community to get after the joint virtual test and training enterprise to make sure we can actually practice how we're actually going to play without giving up any secrets of enemy.
Ken Miller (18:48):
So I want to bring in Colonel Middents on this because Lieutenant Colonel Cox, you mentioned something that I think that's very important is like you want to work on some of these virtual capabilities, but there's going to be another squadron that's coming up under the nine 50th group. You mentioned that in your comments this morning from a group commander perspective, I know this is day one on the job, so I apologize for this question, but as a group commander perspective, how do you through your leadership, allow each of the squadrons under your command to stay in their lane, but also obviously have that crosspollination of capability knowledge leadership because Lieutenant Colonel Cox is going to need to reach over to the other squadrons. How does that help us understand how that works and what do you plan to bring to the group that will foster that type of collaboration?
Colonel Ryan Cox (19:38):
Lieutenant Colonel Cox spoke earlier about how he was empowered and enabled to come down to Robbins and stand up this detachment organization initially. And so I give my squadron commanders the same orders to go forth and to kind of tackle their missions. Now, every once in a while, I'm that intrusive group commander where I come in and I try and get them together to have that crosstalk, and so we'll do that. The great thing about being as small as we are right now as we're growing into a larger organization is we're pretty much the same organization in a lot of ways anyway. What I actually find myself challenged to do is to separate everybody from each other. There's just so much crossover between the conversations and everything else. So yeah, right now it hasn't been a horrible problem having people stay in their lane. I actually need to reach across for bandwidth and for resources to make sure that everything's getting done according to the priorities that I have. So there's a little bit of a dance to be had there, but whereas I make sure that they have the ability to go forth and think about their own mission essential functions and things like that, it's just kind of inherent in the way that we're organized right now that there's just natural crossover.
Ken Miller (20:36):
In your opening remarks, you relayed a story similar to Lieutenant Colonel Cox growing up, but you talked a lot about working out of the gym and having to learn the right techniques and the right form because you can do a lot of the right things, but if you do them wrong, you can injure yourself, you can hurt yourself, you can be counterproductive. So your message was simply, it's not just enough to do everything. You have to do it right, and that's part of what falls onto you as a group commander is to make sure you have the right form in what you're doing. Talk a little bit about that type of message to the EW community.
Colonel Ryan Cox (21:17):
So the analogy was that you can spend a lot of hours in the gym and walk out of there and actually not have a whole lot to show for it because you're time under tension, your hypertrophy, all these things, weightlifting wise, they're just wrong. So in the EW side, it's very similar. So if I've got the wrong technique for a heavy lift, I'm going to throw out my back and then I'm down for a while. On the operational side, as far as electronic warfare is concerned, we have things called electronic fracture side. So I turn on my radio, my friend turns on their radio, and whereas we think we're going to have combined effects that we're actually canceling each other out somehow. It's even worse when we bring in allies and partners that make assumptions that their stuff is going to work and we have historic evidence to show that there's a lot of times it is actually detrimental for us to just turn things on and assume that things are going to happen and work.
Colonel Ryan Cox (21:59):
So that would be a little bit of the hurting yourself in the gym just like in the air with electronic warfare. But then again, like we talked about, you can spend hours and hours in the gym and not see the results you want. So we can fly a lot of these large force exercises, we can go out and we can maneuver and we can do basic fighter maneuvers and all kinds of stuff. It is teaching valuable lessons to our pilots for sure. Are we learning everything that we could be? Are we actually sending 'em out the door with the tactics, techniques, and procedures that they need to overcome an enemy? Not necessarily, right? So I continue to stress that we are the most capable military in the world, that our allies still look to us for leadership and our allies, sorry, our adversaries still fear us in a lot of ways. However, there is so much growth capability here that we just haven't tapped into and we know that's there. It's a known, what I say, known unknown.
Ken Miller (22:40):
So during the activation ceremony, obviously everything started with your boss, the commander of the three 50th Colonel Larry Fenner who just ascended to command back in July. He had some fantastic words. This is the first time I've actually heard him. We met briefly on the phone a month ago or so, but this is my first time where I've really been able to listen to him and just some great thoughts that I wanted to bring this up and get your feedback on that in terms of what that means for how you conduct your jobs. With nine 50th and the 17th at the top, he mentioned that we're out of time, and I think you can see that with the Air Force, their emphasis, their priority for ew, and he talked about the need to prepare, optimize and grow, and those were very three very excellent pathways to follow because we talked a lot about training you have to prepare for, but as you prepare, you learn ways to become more efficient and optimize that, and then from there you're growing. I sometimes think that the three 50 is trying to do all three of those things at once, and that makes it extremely challenging. Talk a little bit about how that affects or impacts your mission here at the nine 50th, and then we'll go over to Lieutenant Colonel Cox on the 17th at the squadron level.
Colonel Ryan Cox (24:02):
So I see your perception is absolutely correct. I like to say that we're building the airplane as we fly it in a lot of ways, and so there is inherent challenges there in that we'd rather have a deliberate structure. In fact, we have many engineers on our staff and our squadrons and whatnot, and these individuals live a controlled environment where they can go from step one to step two, and I can get the data from that. What we're doing both organizationally, but as an air force as well, is having to learn how to be much more adaptive real time. So as my boss said, we're out of time. We need to be ready now we are, like I said, we're going to have to have some results as soon as we can, and we're going to try to develop even better capabilities as we go forward. So
Ken Miller (24:41):
The tenor, Carl Cox, you wanted to jump in?
Colonel Michael Middents (24:42):
Yeah, absolutely. So building new organizations is a lot more difficult than I thought it would. I've got a lot of respect for people who open new businesses and go out alone unafraid because there are so many things that you need to consider that I didn't think I had to think about when it came to being a professional officer at an aviator in the military, and it can be very daunting. It will make you feel stupid, frustrated and question a lot of your decision-making in the process. But in talking to a bunch of other individuals who have done startup programs, they said that that is part of the growing process. There's always that doubt. There's always the why did I do this or why are we doing this, right? But when Colonel Ner said, we're running out of time, it echoes the discussions of the year 2027.
Colonel Michael Middents (25:25):
A lot of people bring up and the need to accelerate change or lose the Wing has internalized that guidance, and I think the most tangible example of that is the fact that the nine 50 Spectrum warfare group was actually set up three years sooner than we initially planned. There's talking about going fast and then there's doing it, and that is something that we understand that there's risk with, that there is going to be times that we fail and we're going to try to make sure that we fail forward when we do that because you have to be able to make sure that you're taking informed risks so you know where the potential is to fail, but understand what can you learn from that so you don't make the same mistake twice. I had a really good mentor who would tell me to try to avoid paralysis by analysis, and the way to do that is he would use the adage race to version one as you strive for version five, build a new process and then try that new process out, and if it doesn't work, then let's try it all over again.
Colonel Michael Middents (26:20):
Again, easier to say than to do. Very frustrating if your ideas aren't taken when you suggest version one and maybe actually that ends up being the version five, right? It's really important that with new organizations that you take that approach and to understand. Our bosses often talk about debrief culture, and if you are unfamiliar with that concept as aviators, we understand that there is rank, we'll respect rank, but in debrief, the adage is you take your rank off as long as you're respectful. You are required to tell as a lieutenant, the lieutenant colonel or general who was in your formation, Hey, sir, you flew that maneuver incorrectly, or you overspeed your aircraft at this time because it's important to have that information brought back. So even as you build new organizations as well, it's important for people to be honest and say, Hey, that worked or didn't work. I think a lot of other countries struggle with their militaries and having that honest feedback from both sides.
Ken Miller (27:10):
It goes back to terminology that we've heard time again, democratizing ew, and just bringing it down to really the war fighter through the ranks, down through echelon so that everyone's role is understood, respected, there's that flow of information and feedback and so forth. One of the things that everybody's mentioned today, Colonel Fenner, each of you, was this need to win win the spectrum For decades. We talked a lot about how important EW was to enabling other capabilities and there's still an enabling capability, but now I think, or at least it feels from all the way from a FA and the leaders that spoke there to this summary that there's an awareness that we have to win the spectrum. Talk a little bit about the importance of that and how that has changed or at least been the focus of the Air Force leadership on down to where you're at today in terms of path forward for ew.
Colonel Ryan Cox (28:14):
So I think a lot of times we'll talk about air superiority. This is something that anyone air minded talks about quite frequently. I think we need to appreciate kind of a spectrum superiority kind of approach to the mission that we have here. So going back once again to the example of Ukraine, Russia, what we found is Ukrainians have been able to defend their airspace. They have very limited capability to push into any kind of Russian airspace, and I think we need to see with air superiority in the future is an ability to have some kind of localized air superiority and then come back again with spectrum superiority, same thing. You got to be able to defend your networks to make sure the enemy doesn't prevent you from using them. We talked earlier about your network systems, whether it's long range kill chain, whether it's a link system, anything like that.
Colonel Ryan Cox (28:54):
Talking to your own forces, you've got to preserve that, so maintain that spectrum superiority, and then we need to have the localized capability to push into the enemy spectrum space to have the effects that we want and get back out again. Now, if I can dominate that space, I'm absolutely going to, so we're going to push to make the enemy hurt as much as possible, but realistically, if I can go in there and dominate a portion for a time to have an effect like we talked about earlier, and that's what I'm probably looking at here.
Ken Miller (29:18):
So just to kind of tie things up, most important question is your vision moving forward. I have been astounded over the years about how fast the spectrum warfare wing itself as a whole is moving forward. Great leadership all the way back to Dollar Lieutenant Colonel Cox. You mentioned that Wing was stood up a little bit even faster than anyone thought, and that is continuing today with the activation of the nine 50th and then the 17th squadrons and nine 50th group. Your jobs aren't done. You have plans to grow. You mentioned a few other squadrons that are going to be set up under the group. Could you talk a little bit, I'll give you each time to talk a little bit about your growth vision for both the group and the squadron and where the Wing is headed through your organizations. And I'll start with you, Colonel. Middents
Colonel Ryan Cox (30:09):
As far as assessments are concerned, which is the focus of our group, as I talked about earlier, I'll just keep going with the theme of a spectrum, right? So my vision is to have an assessment on a spectrum from the components on an aircraft to the whole aircraft itself, to the operators that are in that aircraft, and then grow that into small force packages, large force packages we talked about earlier. So this is not only training, but it's also combat operations. I want to be able to see if my, once I've validated these components in these systems, if they can operate well together now, that whole vision is really wrapped up once again in the war fighter. So are we producing something that the war fighter is able to step to a jet with confidence to be able to perform in an optimized manner is what we're looking at, whether it's combatant commanders, whether it's the guy that's actually in the jet doing the job, and with the background that both of us have.
Colonel Ryan Cox (30:56):
Having that empathy to know that sometimes you step and you've seen in an analysis that a computer said that you're this good or that good against the system and your confidence just isn't there. So you maneuver your jet a certain way because your trust just isn't there. My vision is to make sure that operator says, no, we've run this many times. We've got good confidence, stay the course or maneuver now. But whatever it is, they've got that reliable data from us and they know how good they are or not in the fight. Lieutenant Colonel Cox.
Colonel Michael Middents (31:19):
So I think one of the big missing ingredients that the Air Force and the DOD have recently started to invest more in is the ability to bring it all together. You talked about the democratization of electronic warfare. We come from a background of defensive self-protect systems to enable other operations, but offensive electronic attack is more important by every conflict. It becomes more and more important to have that bring the fight to the enemy and the spectrum as opposed to just denying their capability operates so we can go do something else. Having advanced electronic attack capabilities, which some other people refer to it as RF enabled cyber, we in the wing refer to that as advanced ea. Those capabilities are something that are really important to do. And when it comes to ensuring whether those capabilities are going to work, it's really important that we have a central node that says, when I bring all the pieces of the strike package together and the coalition partners and the joint partners, because the spectrum is inherently joint spectrum is inherently, coalition doesn't care what country you are from, as long as you have the effective radiated power, it's going to affect everybody.
Colonel Michael Middents (32:24):
What the Air Force really needed was that organization that says, let's bring it all together. Let's take a look at how it all works together, and then let's start experimenting. Where are the parts that we don't know so that when we bring, the analogy I always uses it is an orchestra. It really is. I mean, we're operating in different frequencies. We're playing at the same time in the same space, and it's important to ensure that we can all play together in the same place at the same time. To not only keep ourselves from fracture side, but to make sure that taking it to the enemy is something that I think is truly unique about the nine 50th and that what one of the other squadrons is going to be doing here shortly. I think that's really going to make a difference. And we briefed General Richardson, the Air Force Material Commander last week about some of our mission essential functions, and it was great to hear that they've stood up the Electronic Warfare Program executive office up at Hanscom Air Force Base, and he was very excited with the fact that a lot of the findings that the nine 50th is going to have will help influence some of the acquisition priorities by understanding where are we weak in the spectrum.
Colonel Michael Middents (33:29):
He expressed a lot of interest about making sure that we are there to work with him because we may wear a CC tags, but we are part of the United States Air Force Warfare Center and the Warfare Center Charter says that we work for all MA comms. We make sure that all MA comms get the support that they deserve, and so we're excited to work with all the major commands to make sure that we are going to win in the spectrum.
Ken Miller (33:48):
Well, gentlemen, first of all, congratulations on your new assignments. Very exciting to be here to witness the activation ceremonies. Really look forward to watching this vision unfold. Tremendous track record of accomplishment. I'm sure that that will continue under your leadership and of course, from an A OC perspective, I know a OC is always there to help you in any way, but really do appreciate you taking time to be here on from the Crows Nests and maybe next October, 2025. I'll be right back here for the next activation. I'm sure with your pace, it might even be sooner, who knows? But it seems to be a regular occurrence here. But thank you for joining me here from the Crows Nests.
Colonel Ryan Cox (34:28):
I really appreciate it. Thanks so much. Yeah, thank you. Thank you.
Ken Miller (34:31):
That will conclude this episode of From The Crows Nest. I want to thank my guest, Colonel Michael Midt and Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Cox for joining me. Also, please take a moment to review, share, and subscribe to this podcast. You can also email me at host at from the crows nest.org. We always enjoy hearing from our listeners. That's it for today. Thanks for listening.