Adversaries in Syria are attempting to use aggressive electronic warfare capabilities to disable AC-130 gunships, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command said at a conference last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Army Gen. Tony Thomas, commander of SOCOM, said at the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation\u2019s GEOINT 2018 Symposium that the military is being tested daily by adversaries trying to use electronic warfare, or EW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRight now in Syria, we\u2019re in the most aggressive EW environment on the planet, from our adversaries,\u201d Thomas said, according to a video posted online. \u201cThey\u2019re testing us every day, knocking our communications down, disabling our AC-130s, et cetera.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas used that aside to illustrate the importance of technology such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in SOCOM\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Air Force Special Operations Command referred questions on electronic warfare operations against AC-130s to SOCOM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citing operational security reasons, SOCOM declined to provide specific information about the impact of electronic warfare on operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a general rule, we don\u2019t discuss our operations,\u201d SOCOM spokesman Ken McGraw said in an email to Air Force Times.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe subject of the part of Gen. Thomas\u2019 presentation you are referring to was the capabilities USSOCOM needs to provide our operators to maximize their effectiveness,\u201d McGraw added. \u201cDuring the presentation, he pointed out factors the U.S. military has to deal with in today\u2019s operating environment as illustrations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Adversaries in Syria are attempting to use aggressive electronic warfare capabilities to disable the Air Force’s gunships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":51016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":10,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[10,29,116,15,88],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3372],"class_list":["post-45081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-your-military"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KJAABLZYINCS7LWTLWC4MKTSSQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2018\/04\/27\/socom-boss-adversaries-are-disabling-air-force-gunships-in-syria\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n