AOC 2024 is now over, but the lessons drawn from the event still resonate for attendees. The symposium theme was right on target – Electromagnetic Spectrum Warfare: The Great Power Competition. It set the stage for the entire week and it set a goal for our community – both as a North Star and as a meaningful measuring stick to chart our progress and recognize our EMSO gaps. There are "hard" gaps, such as materiel development and procurement, numbers of personnel, etc. And there are "soft" gaps, such as organization, leadership, processes, quality of personnel, quality of training, etc. In Great Power Competition, overcoming these "soft" gaps matters just as much as tackling the "hard" gaps.
AOC 2024 delved into many areas, such as electromagnetic battle management (EMBM), JADC2, AI for EW systems, and EW rapid reprogramming, all of which the EMSO community has been working on (and anticipating) for many years. As each of these areas get closer to becoming reality, they fuel new EMSO possibilities. Yet at the same time, we're still grappling with data access and security levels in EMBM, understanding all the ways AI can benefit EMSO, determining how quickly we need to generate new mission data and target waveforms and how close to the tactical edge this needs to be done. These challenges aren't roadblocks. They're the types of question you ask when you've been making progress and you're moving into more detailed aspects ahead of deploying these capabilities and processes.
All in all, AOC 2024 left the EMSO community with a better understanding of where we are and how we need to continue preparing for Great Power Competition. At AOC 2025 (Dec. 9-11 at the Gaylord in National Harbor, Maryland) we'll have another opportunity to measure our progress.