Install, repair, and maintain command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C5ISR) systems.
ASVAB AR+MK+EI+GS: 222
Catalog listing, not a contract offer. Confirm with a recruiter.
Coast Guard Electronics Technicians maintain the communications, navigation, and sensor systems on cutters, aircraft, and shore sites. Work includes fault isolation, component replacement, alignment, and preventive maintenance. Shore assignments often involve maintaining aids to navigation and remote communications sites. You climb towers, work on antennas, and troubleshoot systems that search and rescue depends on. Documentation and configuration control are enforced rigorously.
You learn electronics theory, circuit analysis, and systematic fault isolation with professional test equipment. Radio, radar, satellite, and navigation systems become familiar at component level. The rating teaches antenna and tower work, RF safety, and cable fabrication. You gain networking and computer systems skills as platforms increasingly digitize. Most technicians hold a security clearance.
The job builds logical, patient troubleshooting where guessing wastes days. You develop comfort working at height and in remote locations alone. It teaches reliability, because the systems you maintain support life-saving missions. Coast Guard Electronics Technicians tend to become self-sufficient, analytical people. You also gain confidence with complex technology.
Electronics technician roles in telecommunications, defense, industrial controls, and instrumentation hire directly. Tower and antenna work is a well-paid specialty with strong demand from wireless carriers. Field service engineering for equipment manufacturers values exactly this profile. Many veterans add certifications or an associate degree and move into engineering technician roles. Federal agencies including FAA and NOAA recruit for similar technical work.
Published personal accounts with source links. Each describes an individual experience, not a typical assignment or a guarantee of your own experience.
“I think the most satisfying thing about aids to navigation is just sort of like the work-hard, play-hard mentality.”
“We have some days where we work seven or eight buoys in a single day and it's kind of nice knowing, like when we finish everything on our list, then we get to go back into port.”
Quotes are from U.S. government public-domain news stories (DVIDS, army.mil and other official sources). Individuals and units are named as reported at time of publication.
You begin in the electronics shop reviewing casualty reports and firing up test benches to diagnose radar and radio faults. Climbing masts and crawling behind consoles, you align antennas, repair navigation receivers, and keep the cutter's communications suite online. The rest of your day goes to preventive maintenance checks, frequency programming, and logging repairs in the maintenance system.
No suitable exact-MOS or related career-field video has been verified for this page yet. No unrelated video or search-results page is substituted.
$43,902–$74,948
2026 basic pay only; the same grade and service time pay the same across jobs. Promotions are assumed, not promised. Excludes allowances, bonuses and special pays.
For Coast Guard ET Electronics Technician, official service-wide guidance and any exact feeder-list matches are distinguished below from unverified specialty-specific requirements. Ranks are not separate jobs, and these possibilities are not guaranteed promotions or available contracts.
Examples of higher service ranks
These are service-wide rank names, not a verified promotion ladder for this specialty. Examples are not exhaustive; appointments sharing a pay grade are not additional promotion steps.
Official military rank referenceThe October 2026 Reserve Servicewide Examination announcement makes advancement conditional on rating/pay-grade qualifications and command recommendation, with rating-specific examination exceptions. Its scope is Reserve E-5 through E-7, not every grade or active-duty cycle. It does not establish a promotion ceiling for this listing.
Coast Guard October 2026 Reserve advancement examinationService-level application reference—not a verified next step for this listing
Officer Candidate School is a separate competitive commissioning pathway open to Coast Guard enlisted members. This general program does not establish individual eligibility or a transfer to any particular officer specialty. Warrant appointments have separate requirements; no rating-to-warrant feeder match is asserted here.
Coast Guard Officer Candidate SchoolSpecialty-specific advancement, senior assignments, and eligibility for a different personnel category have not been verified for this listing. No feeder eligibility or automatic transition to another specialty is implied.
Advancement depends on current service rules, performance, required education, qualifications, selection, and authorized positions—not simply years served. Confirm current requirements with an official recruiter or career counselor.
Related military jobs below are for exploration, not promised progression or confirmed transfer paths.
Sources reviewed 2026-10-03. This is a partial evidence review, not verification of every advancement route for this specialty. Source retrieval dates do not replace policy effective dates.
Career-field mappings, not automatic qualifications. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2024 national medians). O*NET links explain each occupation; military experience does not guarantee a job or salary.
Install, repair, and maintain command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C5ISR) systems.
Coast Guard Electronics Technicians maintain the communications, navigation, and sensor systems on cutters, aircraft, and shore sites. Work includes fault isolation, component replacement, alignment, and preventive maintenance. Shore assignments often involve maintaining aids to navigation and remote communications sites. You climb towers, work on antennas, and troubleshoot systems that search and rescue depends on. Documentation and configuration control are enforced rigorously.
You learn electronics theory, circuit analysis, and systematic fault isolation with professional test equipment. Radio, radar, satellite, and navigation systems become familiar at component level. The rating teaches antenna and tower work, RF safety, and cable fabrication. You gain networking and computer systems skills as platforms increasingly digitize. Most technicians hold a security clearance.
Electronics technician roles in telecommunications, defense, industrial controls, and instrumentation hire directly. Tower and antenna work is a well-paid specialty with strong demand from wireless carriers. Field service engineering for equipment manufacturers values exactly this profile. Many veterans add certifications or an associate degree and move into engineering technician roles. Federal agencies including FAA and NOAA recruit for similar technical work.
ASVAB AR+MK+EI+GS: 222. This is the catalog's listed requirement, not an individual eligibility decision. Confirm the current standard and any exceptions with the service.
This specialty can be pursued through an initial enlistment, subject to eligibility and available contracts. Confirm the current status of this specific classification with an official recruiter.
Catalog sources consulted: 2026-09-26. This is not an entry-by-entry verification date. No record-specific verification date is recorded. Occupation audit evidence reviewed: 2026-09-26; this does not re-verify every requirement.
Official branch occupation evidence
Occupation identified. This occupation was identified in the cited source. This does not verify requirements, benefits, or a current opening.
Official occupation evidence · reviewed 2026-09-26
Confirmed. Catalog evidence is not an inventory of open contracts.
No dated public inventory confirmed a currently open recruiting contract for this role. This does not mean there are no openings. Confirm current eligibility and offers with an official recruiter.
Advertised — Coast Guard, as of 2026-09-28Deployment likelihood: Moderate*
* Estimated. Rank progression and specialty-pay eligibility are illustrative assumptions. Deployment likelihood, when shown, is inferred from similar specialties in the branch and career field, not a published specialty deployment rate.
Descriptions may change. No military role is free from risk of injury or death, including non-combat work. Catalog review dates do not establish current openings or re-verification of every requirement.
Recruiting signals reflect what each branch published on the dates shown. They are not offers, and they do not mean a contract is open for you. Eligibility depends on your ASVAB scores, medical qualification, security clearance eligibility, and ship date. Confirm everything with an official recruiter. See our Disclaimer and Terms.