Defense-tech startup CX2 has raised US$31 million in a series A funding round to enhance its electronic warfare (EW) tools and expand its workforce.

The funding was led by Point72 Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, and Pax Ventures.

The company develops software and hardware, including autonomous drones and signals-intelligence payloads.

🔗 Source: Axios

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ The pendulum swing in US electronic warfare investments

The US military’s renewed focus on electronic warfare follows decades of oscillating prioritization that has left capabilities lagging behind near-peer competitors.

During the Cold War, electronic warfare was a core military capability, with the Navy developing sophisticated ESM (Electronic Support Measures) and ECM (Electronic Countermeasures) systems to detect and counter Soviet threats 1.

However, as the article notes, US electronic warfare capabilities have atrophied as focus shifted to counterinsurgency operations after 9/11, when adversaries relied primarily on low-tech solutions like IEDs rather than sophisticated electronic systems.

This created a capability gap that CX2 is now targeting with its “attritable, intelligent EW systems,” addressing a longstanding issue identified by military leaders since at least 2013, when Colonel Jim Ekvall advocated for long-term prioritization of EW capabilities 2.

The pendulum has now swung back toward prioritizing electronic warfare capabilities due to threats from near-peer competitors like Russia and China, who maintained and advanced their electronic warfare arsenals during the period when US attention was focused elsewhere.

2️⃣ The democratization of electronic warfare is reshaping battlefield economics

The Ukraine-Russia conflict has dramatically demonstrated how electronic warfare has reached “consumer scale,” fundamentally altering the cost dynamics of modern warfare.

As CX2’s CEO notes, the US is “firing multimillion-dollar missiles at $20,000 drones and $10,000 jammers,” highlighting the unsustainable economics of using high-cost weapons against low-cost threats.

This cost asymmetry is evident in Ukraine, where FPV drones costing as little as $500 are effectively destroying tanks and armored vehicles worth millions 3.

The proliferation of inexpensive electronic warfare capabilities represents a significant shift in warfare economics, where a nation with a smaller defense budget can effectively counter a more well-resourced adversary through cost-effective electronic warfare tools.