Battling Electronic Warfare Complacency

The Defense Department has “gotten a little complacent” about electronic warfare since the 1990s, Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s deputy acquisition chief, told reporters Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Kendall said he was involved in EW 20 years ago when DOD officials “had a pretty robust program [and] understood that we were in a game” that was highly competitive, and “you had to keep making advancements to continually stay ahead.” Now, however, “I think our capabilities, and the degree to which we’re ahead of the power curve, has atrophied a little bit, there, and we have to take a look at that and see if we can strengthen that,” he explained. Kendall claimed that the Pentagon is starting “to revitalize that field a little bit,” adding that “there will probably be some [funding] increases.” It seems to have been a budget issue as Kendall noted that DOD hasn’t invested in EW “recently, as much as we might have been inclined to do.”