Why is Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) the Backbone of Military Strategies?

In today’s modern militaries and intelligence agencies, intelligence-based decision-making is at the core of day-to-day processes and strategic planning, and signals intelligence (SIGINT) is a huge part of it.

SIGINT is a type of intelligence gathering, which comprises messages and data of one or more parties. This data is gathered using any amalgamation of electronic, communications, or foreign instrumentation signals intelligence, regardless of the way in which the data was communicated. This possibly will comprise verbal interactions, written messages, information from radar or weapon systems, and others.

The basic aim of SIGINT is to understand the activities, threats, competences, and aims of a country’s rivals. It offers a glance into what threats and other fears a country might need to protect against and, consequently, create a roadmap of the highly operational possibilities of actions to discover or execute to ensure readiness.

The Evolution of Signals Intelligence (SIGINT)

The roots of SIGINT can be marked out back to the First World War when the British militaries started capturing German radio communications to obtain information about their strategies. This resulted in the implementation of cryptography to protect the content of radio communications, and intrinsically, cryptanalysis became a vital part of SIGINT.

With many advancements in technology, the arena of SIGINT significantly matured over the years. In the present day, the U.S. army collects SIGINT via unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) such as the Global Hawk and Reaper drones, which are fortified with potent Light and Imaging Detection (LIDAR) and infrared sensors & cameras, as well as synthetic aperture RADAR to collect and send back worthy raw intelligence from the operative environment for exploration and analysis. However, UAVs has one drawback that they fly slowly and at lower altitudes as compared to manned aircrafts, thus making them more susceptible to anti-aircraft events. One way out to this problem is the EA-18G Growler which is plane that is being redesigned from a pure warfare airplane to an innovative, supersonic ISR platform. It can fly more rapidly and at higher altitudes as compared to a drone and is fortified with sensors that can spot rival RADAR systems and even the signals of cell phone.

One more pragmatic example of advanced SIGINT abilities might be the capture of electronic communications’ data by the National Security Agency (NSA), which can offer actionable insights in real-time by apprehending information such as phone calls, texts, emails, and others.

As per a report by Research Dive, the global signals intelligence (SIGINT) market is foreseen to grow at an accelerated rate in the forthcoming years, as national safety has developed into a key priority in numerous nations including Taiwan, Australia, India, the U.S., and many others. These nations need a huge budget to construct highly equipped defence services.

Has COVID-19 Pandemic been a Catalyst in the Growth of the Signal Intelligence Market?

The global signals intelligence (SIGINT) market is growing exponentially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The reason behind this is the substantial surge in government investigation procedures globally, mainly through the usage of applications in mobile phones. Even though advanced applications might have practical effects on the efforts  taken on public health to battle the pandemic, their involvement in public’s life might obscures the connection between health data and traditional government monitoring instruments, thus making efficient overseeing problematic. This has boosted the need for effective signal intelligence across the world.

The spread of COVID-19 pandemic also seems to have developed into one of the highly dominating forces in terrorist online communications, forums, and chatrooms. This has triggered the need to strengthen national security and keenly keep an eye on the activities of opposing parties. All this is anticipated to generate favourable opportunities for the signal intelligence market during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the Author(s)

Princy A. J

Princy holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the prestigious Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. University at Chennai, India. After a successful academic record, she pursued her passion for writing. A thorough professional and enthusiastic writer, she enjoys writing on various categories and advancements in the global industries. She plays an instrumental role in writing about current updates, news, blogs, and trends.