Pentagon’s EW Blind Spot: Urgent Upgrades Needed to Match Modern Threats

A top U.S. lawmaker warns that the Pentagon’s outdated electronic warfare posture could leave American forces exposed as adversaries escalate in spectrum dominance.

America’s slipping when it comes to electronic warfare—and that’s coming straight from Capitol Hill. Rep. Don Bacon, who heads the House Armed Services Subcommittee and knows his way around a flight deck as a retired Air Force general, didn’t mince words during a recent briefing. He flagged serious gaps in how the military branches are handling EW tech—calling it outdated, scattered, and underfunded. While cyber defense has seen a decent push, electronic warfare—the gear that sniffs out, jams, or blocks enemy signals—just hasn’t kept pace. Meanwhile, countries like China and Russia aren’t just testing next-gen systems—they’re using them. Bacon made it clear: the U.S. can’t afford to play catch-up in a battlefield that’s increasingly wired and signal-driven.

Bacon isn’t just sounding the alarm—he’s pushing hard for a unified game plan across all military branches. He wants to see faster innovation and tighter coordination, especially when it comes to syncing up EW tools across both hardware and software layers. Right now, he says, it’s too piecemeal—pointing to the Army’s Terrestrial Layer System and the Navy’s Surface EW Improvement Program as examples of projects stuck in their own lanes. He’s also frustrated with how slowly the industry is cranking out nimble, software-driven EW platforms that can shift gears mid-mission. For U.S. defense contractors, this isn’t just a nudge—it’s a loud signal to build smarter, AI-ready systems that can react, jam, and neutralize threats in real time.

This isn’t just a military heads-up—it’s a big moment for the entire defense tech space. Companies now face a new kind of pressure. Where you spend your R&D money, how fast you can build, and whether your systems play well across domains—it all matters more than ever. The Pentagon’s not asking anymore; it’s expecting fast builds, plug-and-play architecture, and seamless integration across land, air, sea, and space. The firms that can move at this new speed? They’ll land the contracts and help shape how we dominate the spectrum. The rest? They risk getting benched in a world where the battlefield runs on signal power.