Cryptologic Electronic Warfare Support (CrEWS)®
Advancing EW support at the tactical edge for airborne and surface operators.
This effort originated from a recognized gap in extending tactical awareness of the electromagnetic environment beyond individual platforms and across surface and airborne assets operating within defined Operational Areas.
On ships, Electronic Warfare (EW) capabilities are often concentrated at a limited number of operator consoles, with additional supervisory access dependent on platform configuration. Mission demands require watchstanders to maintain continuous awareness of the electromagnetic environment, while paper-based products can make near-immediate access to authoritative supplementary information difficult. CrEWS is intended to help address these needs through intuitive, touch-based interaction on a companion tablet, reducing workload, improving shared cognitive awareness across the watchstanding team, and shortening the observe, orient, decide, and act cycle essential to time-sensitive mission execution.
Comparable challenges exist on airborne platforms such as the MH-60R, E-2D, P-8A, and EA-18G, where sensor operators and aircrew must interpret and act on complex electromagnetic data in dynamic environments. For unmanned platforms such as the MQ-4C Triton or MQ-9 Reaper, mission payload operators could use a common shore-based approach that preserves separation from flight-critical and Program of Record subsystems.
CrEWS Mobile shown on multiple mobile device form factors
The Missing Layer in Fleet EW Modernization
CrEWS® is built to provide an operator-facing, and platform-independent capability designed to complement existing Navy EW programs by addressing gaps in accessibility and integration:
It is designed to complement legacy consoles.
It minimizes the need for changes to existing Programs of Record.
It aligns with existing operational doctrine.
It can enhance operator effectiveness across a range of air, surface, and subsurface platforms, including manned and unmanned systems.
CrEWS supports a more coherent and unified view of distributed EW data, enabling more timely and actionable insights at the tactical edge.
CrEWS: Mobile Tactical Awareness Across Air, Surface, and Subsurface Operations
CrEWS Mobile runs natively on Apple iPads, building on electronic kneeboard workflows already familiar in portions of naval aviation during unclassified operations. This extends operator access to mission-relevant information at the tactical edge through a proven mobile form factor. A browser-based variant, CrEWS Web, is under development to support operators and Programs of Record seeking an embedded or platform-integrated capability.
These efforts are intended to make mission data more accessible, timely, and usable in distributed, time-sensitive operational environments. Extending such capabilities into more sensitive use cases requires careful attention to security, policy, platform constraints, and authorization requirements.
Through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the United States Navy, GMW is collaborating with Navy stakeholders to evaluate technical and operational approaches that may help inform future authorization pathways for mobile, browser-based, and edge-enabled capabilities in classified environments.
ZTEG™ Services: Secure, Flexible Delivery of Software and Data Updates
ZTEG is under development as a containerized edge-services architecture intended to support CrEWS-equipped mobile devices and other compatible platforms across distributed operational environments, subject to platform and enclave constraints. Its objective is to provide local access to time-sensitive mission data, software updates, policy or threat-library updates, and mapping resources while reducing reliance on continuous cloud connectivity and specialized hardware where suitable infrastructure already exists.
The architecture is being developed for communications-constrained and denied, disrupted, intermittent, and limited (DDIL) operations through local processing, caching, and asynchronous synchronization. It is also intended to align over time with appropriately authorized IL-6 connectivity requirements, including approved SATCOM and pLEO pathways, subject to formal authorization, accreditation, policy, and interface-approval processes.
Learn More or Request a Demonstration
We welcome collaboration with operational units, program offices, warfare centers, and industry partners. To learn more or request a demo, contact us at: crews@globalmaritimewerx.com