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Air Force in a Jam as Navy's Growler Moves in
Hat tip In from the Cold.
The US Air Force’s lack of progress with its electronic attack strategy is in growing contrast to the US Navy’s rapid progress with its EA-18G Growler. And questions about the widening gap should be getting louder. The agreement under which US Navy EA-6B Prowlers provide jamming support for US Air Force strike aircraft ends in 2012, and the USAF will have nothing ready to replace it.

Production EA-18Gs will begin arriving next month at their NAS Whidbey Island, Washington base, and the Growler is to enter operational evaluation in September. The electronic-attack derivative of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is scheduled to become operational in 2009 and make its first carrier deployment in 2010. But the Navy is buying only 85 Growlers, enough to equip its 10 carrier air wings but not to also provide jamming support to the Air Force.

Back in 2004, an analysis of alternatives concluded the DoD’s EA solution should be the Miniature Air-Launched Decoy – Jammer (MALD-J) and Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) for stand-in jamming; the EA-6B and EA-18G for escort jamming; penetration escort using the jamming capability of the AESA radars on the F-22 and F-35; and the EB-52 Stand-Off Jammer (SOJ).

J-UCAS and SOJ were cancelled. The MALD-J was delayed and a production decision is not expected until 2011. The Air Force is still trying to get funding for a scaled-down Core Component Jammer for the B-52, focused on a narrower spectrum of radar frequencies and using receiver technology from the EA-18G to reduce cost.

The Navy, meanwhile, has started working towards a next-generation electronic attack pod for the Growler. This would enter service around 2020 and provide the capability to counter future hard-to-jam AESA threat radars. The Next Generation Jammer would not be just for the EA-18G; the modular system could be used in UAVs and other platforms.

For now, the Growler uses a repackaged version of the ICAP III electronic-attack system in the Prowler. But the ALQ-99 jamming pods are proving much more effective on the EA-18G, says Navy F/A-18 program manager Capt Mark Darrah. This is because the Growler’s groundbreaking comm-while-jam datalink capability ensures the jamming is accurately aligned and the aircraft being protected are exactly on a line between the radar and the jammer. Channelized receivers also focus the jamming power more effectively.

These are capabilities the Air Force needs, despite the claims for stealth and AESA. Tough questions need to asked about when the Air Force will get its electronic attack house in order.
Posted by: Steve White 2008-05-22
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=239664