Improved air defenses prompt Pentgon fears

The Pentagon fears that the US has less dominance on electronic warfare due to a mix of upgraded surface-to-air-missiles and a breakdown in the country's ability to counter air defense threats. A review of US air defenses revealed that the U-2Ss, which is among the best reconnaissance and electronic signals intelligence-gathering aircraft in the US, would have been unable to identify the signals from some older, but newly upgraded Iraqi air defense radars. The updating has altered the electronic observables of the radars that guide Iraq's SA-2 missiles, so that radar warning devices are unable to identify the missiles as threats. In the spring of 1998, the military has started a crash program called the Electronic Warfare Operational Shortfall Study (EWOSS) to address the U-2S problem.