Electronic Weapons: American Electronic Warfare Failure

[rangerrebew]

Electronic Weapons: American Electronic Warfare Failure
 

Ezoic

May 19, 2026: The American army fails when it comes to ELINT/Electronic Intelligence. This is a self-imposed form of ineptitude that will result in American defeats when it comes to drone use in wartime. This has been obvious since the American forces abandoned the use of jamming equipment after the Cold War ended in 1991. American military leaders eliminated EW units and EWOs/ELectronic Warfare Officers attached to combat divisions, declaring that Air Force and Navy EW aircraft could substitute for the missing army EW units. All this made American ground combat units extremely vulnerable.


Efforts to develop drone interceptors were abandoned because the American legislature refused to fund these efforts. At the same time successful Ukrainian use of drone interceptors against Russian attacks succeeded. This was because Ukraine employed a mixture of jammers, ELINT, FPV/First Person View and continuous assembly of new drones and associated equipment.

The Ukrainians encouraged Americans to create EW units and train with them, while also integrating EW with division and brigade size units that could provide counter-drone expertise using trained drone and EW operators. That still hasn’t happened.

https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htecm/articles/2026051952322.aspx#gsc.tab=0

[Smokin Joe]

I'm not sure what the reason is (unless someone at the puzzle palace is knocking down big money somewhere or has a promise thereof over the more expensive reusable drones) but we'd sure do well to check out the already battle tested drones and systems used by the Ukrainians.
Drone counter-warfare, counter drone warfare, and simple sacrifice attack drones sure seem to be the future of land warfare.
It may be unseemly to hunt enemy combatants down one at a time with FPV drones, but it sure seems effective. Especially when you consider the effect on the morale of attacking troops.

The evolution of drone warfare has followed a similar path to that of the airplane in warfare, first recon, then bombing, then attacking and fighting in the air and all-out ground attack. With this has come an adaptve radiation of forms specifically designed to evade counter drone tactics (fiber optically guided similar to the TOW missile to evade electronic countermeasures) and I can see the opening for 'Wild Weasel' sorts of ECM drones to jam counter drone efforts or seek and destroy sites radiating electromagnetic transmissions.

Land drones are present, too, if in their infancy, and being used in Ukraine, even if in a limited capacity. This is the next wave of conventional warfare, as much a game changer as the use of gunpowder.  We would be well advised to use a leg up, and then apply our own gimmickry to improve it, without spending tens of billions and years to get a prototype.

If this means that at least some of the procurement process needs to be overhauled, then so be it. Git 'er done!