Army Builds Electronic-warfare Teams

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Army Builds Electronic-warfare Teams
March 12, 2009
New York Times

The Army is developing its own electronic warfare teams to move away from relying on the expertise of the Air Force and the Navy.

The initial goal is to train more than 1,600 people from enlisted ranks through the officer corps by 2013, and to double that in the following years, giving the Army enough of these specialists to rival its sister services and surpass all the NATO allies combined.

Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli was the first to say the Army's neglect of electronic warfare was endangering troops. Chiarelli was the No. 2 commander in Iraq when he sent a memorandum to Army leadership at the Pentagon in February 2006, warning that soldiers were unable to operate new high-tech gear that was being rushed to the war zone to counter the threat of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

"When I first got over there in 2004 and in 2005, we didn't have any Army electronic warfare capabilities," said Chiarelli, now the Army vice chief of staff. The Army reached out to the other services for help, and the Navy immediately responded .

Adm. Mike Mullen, then the chief of naval operations but since promoted to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ordered to Iraq hundreds of sailors who specialized in electronic warfare.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/March-2009/army-builds-electronic-warfare-teams.html?col=1186032310810