Daily Jamming Threat Prompts USFK Chief to Call for Adaptive, Jam‑Resistant Solutions

WASHINGTON — U.S. and allied electronic systems are jammed on a daily basis across the Korean Peninsula, placing the region among the most fiercely contested electromagnetic environments worldwide, a senior U.S. commander said.

“Our adversaries conduct electronic attacks on a daily basis. They jam GPS signals in the West Sea and attempt to blind our servers, sensors, and networks,” said Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, during a Tuesday presentation at AFCEA TechNet Indo‑Pacific in Hawaii.

He did not name a specific nation, but earlier in his remarks he described a “nuclear‑armed adversary that constitutionally designates the Republic of Korea as its principal enemy” across the demilitarized zone, referring to North Korea. China, meanwhile, also possesses sophisticated electronic‑attack capabilities in the area.

Brunson emphasized that forces must field resilient and redundant capabilities to operate in this complex environment.

“If a capability depends on pristine satellite communications, infinite bandwidth, and an uninterrupted fiber‑optic backbone, it will not endure 48 hours on the peninsula,” Brunson told the industry‑focused audience.

USFK is deploying resilient high‑frequency networks together with proliferated low‑Earth‑orbit satellite links and terrestrial mesh networks to preserve command and control when primary communications are disrupted, he said.

Brunson urged the industrial base to travel to the peninsula to experience the dynamic environment firsthand. He added that companies should deliver lightweight, jam‑resistant waveforms featuring low probability of intercept and detection, as well as open APIs and edge sensors that can be integrated into joint mission networks without vendor lock‑in.

Despite years of emphasis on joint and coalition interoperability, Brunson stressed that industry must begin designing systems that operate with partner nations from the outset.

“We can no longer create sophisticated systems tailored solely for U.S. enclaves and then attach partner interfaces after the contract is awarded. We must design combined solutions from the first line of code,” he said. “Achieving this will require a fundamental shift in our security mindset.”

For more than three decades, security was built around hardened pipes and perimeter defenses in closed, classified networks. Sharing information with partner nations under this model required establishing an entirely new pipe, he explained.

“In a combined fight within the weapons engagement zone, that model has failed. Hardened pipes isolate our formations and create operational blindness,” he said. “We must move from network‑centric perimeters to data‑centric security—tag the payload, not the pipe.”

He illustrated the concept with a Korean radar that, upon detecting an inbound missile, would verify its track, ingest the data, and push it to the coalition fires network within milliseconds. “Information must flow in milliseconds, not seconds,” Brunson stressed.

Turning Industry Into ‘Pickle Millionaires’

Brunson told industry attendees to closely monitor Pentagon guidance and strategic documents to identify military needs and supply them, using pickles as a metaphor for industry’s North Star.

He cited the Vlasic company, which became “pickle millionaires” by realizing that consumers wanted sliced pickles rather than whole ones for use on burgers.

“If a company stays focused solely on pickles and brine, ‘that’s us,’ you’ll never get pickles on a burger,” he said. “Long pickles aren’t suitable for a burger; you need the small, sliced varieties.”

Similarly, he urged industry to tailor its offerings to meet military requirements instead of forcing products that do not fit.

“The key lesson for industry is to identify your ‘sliced pickle’ and recognize that if it doesn’t align with the mission, you cannot force it in,” he said. “When a service defines its identity and intended operations, failing to meet those requirements will create a problem.”

He highlighted the Army’s newly released “How the Army Fights” strategic document as an example of how companies can align their products with service objectives.

Brunson warned that future operations will involve increasingly disaggregated and distributed forces, with networks under constant threat and plans that may shift before troops arrive. Capabilities that cannot adapt to such requirements will find it difficult to support the Army’s emerging warfare approach, he noted.

“If your product cannot operate at the edge, it will not enable the Army to fight as it intends to fight, let alone support the joint force,” Brunson concluded.

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