Kalistan

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Kalistani Regular Force unveils Top Secret Cyberwarfare division
Electronic warfare added to Fortress Kalistan Doctrine
Port Swedes, Duchy of Vrassa
June 12, 5718


Operators of the Kalistani Regular Force run simulations targeting critical infrastructure of opponents at Port Swedes

When Kalistan abandoned its advanced multirole jet program, which was well over budget even before getting out of development, earlier in this century, the money that had been allocated toward building the new multi-role jet platform was quietly moved to a new division in the Kalistani Regular Service. News about the program, run jointly between the Regular Force and the IBSI dealt with cyberwarfare, and specifically targeting of enemy infrastructure and command and control, as a part of the Fortress Kalistan doctrine. Now new information is being released from Her Imperial Majesty's Minister of Defense about the program in response to inquiries from Institutional Deputies in the National Assembly.

Lt. Yael Greene, who took questions from reporters about the program, said, "This program is not a secret that the Regular Force has hid. We haven't put a massive spotlight on it, but of course the IBSI and the Defense Ministry have briefed the National Assembly several times on the program. I think what is different now is that Institutional members want it advertised that we have these capabilities because they know that secret deterrent capabilities don't deter if nobody knows about them."

The partially classified program, operationally known as "TECWA", is based in the Kalistani Regular Force and is under control of the Intel Division. But it also works with IBSI in several sections. "We cannot say a lot about what TECWA does," said Lt. Greene, "but just as an overview, the system is designed to take over control of foreign civilian infrastructure and turn it to the service of the Kalistani Defensive effort. The system's doctrine is that civilians should not escape the pains of war that they support domestically. Kalistan planes, ships and artillery may not be able to reach them in their homes, but there are other means of bringing the wars home. Perhaps with enough targeted interruption of daily life, war support abroad can be undermined, and democratic pressures in foreign countries can be brought to bear in service of Kalistan's war effort." She did not provide details about the reach of TECWA or the scope of its capabilities. "I can say the potential of severe damage to key and vital civilian infrastructure is high."

TECWA's secondary mission is interruption of command and control of invading forces. "Naturally, in a theater of war in and around Kalistan, command and control for modern militaries revolves almost exclusively around electronics communication systems. TECWA is designed to bring AI and Machine Learning techniques to crack crypto algorithms, and to hijack communications between commanders and their forces on the ground. If the transmissions travel through the air, they can be intercepted. And even 256 Bit end to end encryption that rely on pseudo random signal hopping techniques still follow algorithms. Modern computer processing abilities offer Kalistan the capacity to crack this encryption, to jam it and to sabotage it like never before. This gives Kalistani Regulars and Partisans the opportunity to exploit the features of modern warfare doctrine to our own advantage, to make wars more costly for invaders, without necessarily increasing costs for Kalistan, as our operations will always be purely defensive." Other capabilities involve manipulating of targeting to reduce accuracy of GPS guided weaponry.

Lt. Greene was very keen to warn reporters to not impute capabilities to the program that it might not have. "Look, if we haven't said it, we either can't, or shouldn't. But don't assume that this program is the end of all war. Every thing has workarounds, everything has variables you can't account for ahead of the fact. This program simply aims at levelling the playing field between Kalistan and our more militarily beefy potential adversaries." She also made it clear that Kalistan will always remain at a significant disadvantage against more militarily developed nations. "Electronic and Cyber warfare are functions of asymmetry. We wouldn't need it if we could bring overwhelming force to any battle like some nations easily can. But our doctrine involves closure, isolation and destruction. It is based off of irregular and unconventional tactics, and you have to ask yourself, what would hurt an enemy more? Loss of a few hundred soldiers in a grossly uneven battle on the front in Kalistan, or the meltdown of a nuclear power plant back home? We haven't had a chance to find out, thankfully, but we are preparing it anyway."

While the Spokeswoman would not give additional details about TECWA, some analysts have speculated that TECWA may be using dormant malware as one possible vector of leverage. "Don't speculate," said Lt. Greene. "You will simultaneously over and underestimate Kalistani capability abroad. It's just enough to know it exists." She referred other questions to IBSI, "but they will likely be less willing than Her Imperial Majesty's Defense Minister to talk about it." The line for TECWA, buried in the Defense Ministry's annual budget under "Electronic Counter Security" received more than K$3 Billion last year.