The Air Force needs to find a proper home for electronic warfare, said retired Gen. Larry Welch during AWS16 on Thursday. “One of the biggest problems with electronic warfare is that we don’t know who owns it, where it fits. It’s not cyber,” said Welch. Though some have suggested the service should create a new domain specifically for EW, Welch said he doesn’t necessarily think that’s the answer, “but I do know that the Air Force has been particularly remiss in not doing enough of electronic warfare,” especially considering the gains Russia and China have made and “quite frankly, what the [US] Navy has done,” he added.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
