WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is failing to speedily develop and deploy electronic warfare equipment amid a world competition for electromagnetic spectrum supremacy, based on a congressman who served within the Air Force for greater than twenty years.
After years of putting electronic warfare on “autopilot,” troops’ ability to now jam and spoof and spy from afar has “withered,” said Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican and former director of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance strategy, plans, doctrine and force development.
“I’m seeing, mainly, numerous talk, numerous pondering occurring behind closed doors,” Bacon said at a July 18 event hosted by the Hudson Institute, a think tank. “I don’t see the output, the actual combat capability output that we want.”
U.S. prioritization of high-end electronic warfare systems dropped following the Cold War. It has since experienced a resurgence, as competition heats up with world powers akin to China and Russia. Modern militaries depend on the electromagnetic spectrum to speak, guide weapons, navigate and other crucial tasks.
“By the point I used to be a colonel, a brigadier general, it was clear we let things atrophy to a big degree and Russia and China in lots of areas had surpassed us, because they were focused on it,” Bacon said. “We’re just too slow. It shouldn’t take us five years, six years to show the ship around.”
Bacon was promoted to colonel in 2005 and brigadier general in 2011, based on his Air Force biography. He was first elected in 2016 and serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
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The lawmaker’s remarks echo those made by Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, President Joe Biden’s pick to be the subsequent chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Brown earlier this month warned Congress in written testimony that the military has lost electronic warfare “muscle memory” after spending years fighting lesser-equipped forces, especially within the Middle East. Such diminishment, Brown added, leaves troops vulnerable.
The Air Force last 12 months announced a “sprint” to discover and address electronic warfare deficiencies. Prior to that, the service activated the 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing, populated with electromagnetic specialists and technical experts.
More recently, the 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron accomplished initial ground and flight testing of an MQ-9A Reaper drone fitted with the Indignant Kitten ALQ-167 Electronic Countermeasures Pod.
The successful trials in Nevada focused on providing electronic attack from the Reaper, a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems product typically used to gather intelligence or conduct reconnaissance. The jammer pod is derived from technology developed by the Georgia Tech Research Institute.
Colin Demarest is a reporter at C4ISRNET, where he covers military networks, cyber and IT. Colin previously covered the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration — namely Cold War cleanup and nuclear weapons development — for a every day newspaper in South Carolina. Colin can be an award-winning photographer.