The Air Force is getting ready to launch a sweeping analysis of how it conducts electronic warfare, hoping to develop a more integrated and innovative approach to this critical aspect of modern combat around 2018.
That analysis can’t come soon enough. Experts charge that the multitude of elements in USAF’s electronic warfare portfolio haven’t been knitted together in a coherent way; the service is tripping over definitions, can’t find a workable distinction between electronic and cyber war, and has taken an ad hoc approach to electronic battle.
The service also lacks an electronic warfare “czar” with visibility into all aspects of its EW efforts—a focal point that experts think is urgently needed.
Retired Gen. Larry D. Welch, USAF Chief of Staff from 1986 to 1990, offered a blunt appraisal of the Air Force’s EW enterprise at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., in February.
“One of the problems with electronic warfare is, we don’t know who owns it,” Welch said in a panel discussion on future capabilities. Read more
Source: www.airforcemag.com
