After Syria, Pentagon ramps up electronic warfare efforts
A new team at the US Defense Department is addressing the growing Russian threat to American military technology after Moscow's jamming complicated the Syrian battlefield.
The US Defense Department has set up a new team to deal with the growing threat of Russian jamming of American military technology, Al-Monitor has learned, after the threat became pervasive on the Syrian battlefield over the past four years.
According to documents obtained by Al-Monitor, Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan’s staff will set up a team with members from across the department “to regain US dominance in the electromagnetic spectrum” and identify any gaps in US strategy. The effort will be overseen by the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Paul Selva.
Under the plan, first requested by the Senate in last year’s defense authorization bill, the Pentagon intends to provide Congress with an updated electronic warfare strategy and roadmap by September.
“Ground forces have to deal with it all the time because they can lose access to communications and systems of navigation,” said Michael Kofman, a research scientist at the CNA defense think tank. “Systems like this have a decent range in the dent that they can make. It tends to affect their systems, it tends to affect their GPS systems, it tends to affect their drones.”
