Electronic warfare

Electronic Warfare – Keeping Up with Development Rate

The US Army’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) has recently sent its near-term electronic warfare (EW) capability solution to Europe, and soldiers there will get a chance to try it out, RCO Director Doug Wiltsie told c4isrnet.com.

The RCO, officially created in August, is designed to zero in on the Army’s largest requirements with the intent to deliver capabilities within a one- to five-year horizon. It’s part of the service’s aggressive overhaul to its troubled procurement system and pushes even beyond acquisition reform outlined in congressional defense policy.

At its launch, the office claimed it would prioritize developing capability in the areas of electronic warfare; position, cyber, navigation and timing that were neglected in the counterinsurgency operations of the past 15 years. Now that the Army anticipates battling more near-peer adversaries in contested environments, it is refocusing on ensuring its capability overmatch those possible enemies. By December, the RCO had approved a strategy for a phased way to rapidly prototype electronic warfare capability.