Exploring the AOC 2024 Theme

From a professional perspective, AOC 2024 is my favorite event of the year. Not only do I get the chance to catch up with my colleagues and friends, I also get to make new a lot of friends, too. Each year, I wish the AOC symposium and convention could run for three weeks instead of three days. This would give me just enough time to see everyone I want to see and participate in all of the interesting symposium sessions and meetings and explore all of the exhibitors on the show floor. Although I'll never get this wish – and my AOC symposium experience is never as complete as I imagine it could be – I always leave with lots of new ideas and I get a huge energy boost from this show that carries well into the next year.

Throughout the week, we'll hear several perspectives that support, probe, explain (and maybe even challenge) the theme of this week's symposium: Electromagnetic Spectrum Warfare: The Great Power Competition. This theme raises so many important questions that our community is facing right now. How exactly does EMSO fit into the concept of Great Power Competition? What role does EMSO play in the various phases of Great Power Competition before actual conflict? What does an EMS "theory of victory" look like? The US and its allies have many types of highly capable EW systems, but are we fielding enough EW "mass" to pose a credible conventional deterrent or, if needed, to win a Great Power conflict?

Even if we begin to solve some of these materiel challenges, we must also address other questions, such as, do we have a deep understanding of the ways China or Russia plan to challenge our ability to maneuver in the EMS? And once we understand this, how do our joint forces and coalition forces train collectively in operationally realistic electromagnetic environments. These are just some of the EMSO-related questions that we need to answer and understand as a community. I think AOC 2024 will help us to get our minds around some of the answers.

John Knowles
JED Editor in Chief