Laurie Moe Buckhout, former Assistant National Cyber Director for Policy at the White House, opened the AOC 2025 symposium with a straight-talking keynote that stressed the need to develop military and government leaders who understand the important of Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations (EMSO) and spectrum dominance.
She said that within the Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership and Education, Personnel, Facilities and Policy (DOTMLPF-P) paradigm, educating leadership about EMSO is a critical area. “I’ve been involved in MSO for over 40 years, and I’ve seen the greatest gap throughout that time is leader development and leader education…because if your leaders don’t get it, nobody gets it,” she told the packed audience of EMSO professionals.
She said it is important for EW professionals to share their knowledge with leaders and explain how EW technologies can deliver the effects they need on the battlefield. “So why am I shifting to technology and innovation when I want to talk about leadership? Because that’s what’s driving leadership – waking up to [these technological threats]. I think they’re getting scared, which is great. I think they’re getting angry about what they don’t know, which is great. And I think they want to know more.”
She said the EW community must find ways to share what they know with leaders. “Those of us in this fight for a while understand this is nothing new,” she explained. “But the warfighter and senior strategists now seem to be waking up to it, as I said, because of technical and innovation occurring around the world. And perhaps we can reluctantly thank our enemies and potential adversaries for this awakening. Fighting in the EMS is now the way of the world, for better, for worse.”
Buckhout said that informing leaders will yield results. “What’s going to happen if we get leaders involved? They’re going to integrate EW into doctrine, into our national security strategy, into our national defense strategy, and everything is going to flow from there. They’re going to organize forces to maximize EW effects with EW capable units. They’re going to design training, so we’ll have real world spectrum training finally, because we still have it in very, very few places. That’s going to amplify lethality. They’re going to guide material investments. Educated leaders turn EW from a set of point solutions into a strategic advantage.” – J. Knowles
