Emphasis on electronic warfare a must, Air Force secretary says

While details on the findings of the Air Force’s yearlong deep dive into electronic warfare capabilities are largely classified, Secretary Frank Kendall said Monday the findings will shape near-term budget and architecture decisions.

“There are a number of things that I think offer a lot of potential for us that we’re trying to explore,” Kendall told reporters on the sidelines of the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber conference. “So, I think, writ large, you can expect more emphasis on electronic warfare. ... But I can’t give you any specifics at this time.”

The study is part of a broader Air Force effort to understand key technologies that affect operations across multiple mission areas — and it follows a push from the service in recent years to better leverage the electromagnetic spectrum for communication, sensing, intelligence and non-kinetic warfare.

While there is a widespread understanding of the potential impact of these capabilities, Kendall said electronic warfare systems have not traditionally fared well in funding fights, with larger platforms and weapons programs almost always taking priority.

“My own experience suggests that this is a historically neglected area that can have an oversized impact but doesn’t compete well in our internal budget battles relative to other priorities,” he said in a keynote speech Monday.

Asked by reporters whether the fiscal 2026 budget would elevate these systems, Kendall declined to comment. However, he said the study the Air Force has been conducting was meant to inform its spending plan for FY26 and beyond, adding that it yielded “very promising” findings.

He didn’t discuss those findings in detail, but noted that the service is particularly interested in the role of electronic warfare systems in combating both space and counter-air threats.

“We believe we can counter advanced adversary kill webs by integrating a combination of electronic warfare tools, operationalized cyber capability and other elements,” Kendall said in his speech. “I’m excited to see us making fast progress on this mission area for the Department of the Air Force.”

The service is already in the process of developing an open architecture for electronic attack capabilities and has been working to increase the speed at which it can update these systems with real-time operational data .

Speaking in April at the virtual C4ISRNET Conference, Commander of the 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing Col. Josh Koslov said the Air Force is making progress toward completing those updates in a matter of hours — a process that previously would have taken days.

“We have to be able to continue to add pressure to the adversary in a war in order to seize the advantage and achieve our objectives,” Koslov said. “Data is the weapon that will allow this to happen, and data processing is the way to do that.”