{"id":60803,"date":"2018-06-21T17:45:46","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T17:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/06\/21\/the-us-made-the-wrong-bet-on-radiofrequency-and-now-it-could-pay-the-price\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:32:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:32:02","slug":"the-us-made-the-wrong-bet-on-radiofrequency-and-now-it-could-pay-the-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2018\/06\/21\/the-us-made-the-wrong-bet-on-radiofrequency-and-now-it-could-pay-the-price\/","title":{"rendered":"The US made the wrong bet on radiofrequency, and now it could pay the price"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2013 The Pentagon\u2019s belief in its technology drove the Department of Defense to trust it would have control over the electromagnetic spectrum for years to come, but that decision has left America vulnerable to new leaps in technology from China and Russia, according to a top military official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has now concluded that the Pentagon needs to ensure it is keeping up with those near-peer nations, let along reestablishing dominance of electronic warfare and networking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we assumed wrongly that encryption <\/a>and our domination over the precision timing signals would allow us to evade the enemy in the electromagnetic spectrum. I think that was a bad assumption,\u201d Selva said Thursday at the annual Center for a New American Security conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that we disarmed, it\u2019s that we took a path that they have now figured out,\u201d Selva said. China and Russia instead focused on deploying \u201cdigitally managed radio frequency manipulation, which changed the game in electronic warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that a DoD study looking at the next decade concluded \u201cWe have some work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t