The U.S. Army established its Electronics Command in 1962 at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Fort Monmouth had previously been the base of the Signal Corps, the predecessor of the Electronics Command. The remit of the organisation was to manage signal research, development, and to provide logistics support for the American Army. ECOM, as it was known, was part of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.

In a move intended to encourage research and development, defence chiefs divided Electronics Command into three new institutions in January 1978. These were the Communications and Electronics Materiel Readiness Command (CERCOM), the Communications Research and Development Command (CORADCOM), the Electronics Research and Development Command (ERADCOM), and the Avionics Research and Development Activity (AVRADA). By 1980 a review recommended re-merging the first two bodies to form the Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM), in 1981.