Most of the RAAF’s 12 EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft will not be delivered until mid-2016, but four aircrews are already flying the type in the US and RAAF specialists are now embedded in US Navy (USN) electronic warfare (EW) support organisations.
Although none of the Growlers will arrive in Australia until early 2017, the intention is for aircrew and maintainers to have received sufficient training and experience by then to facilitate the EA-18Gs – destined for No. 6 Squadron at RAAF Amberley – achieving Initial Operating Capability (IOC) by mid-2018.
This will provide the ADF with capabilities unique to the US services and itself, and in tandem with the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), backed by F/A-18F Super Hornets should ensure that Australia’s air power retains its regional edge for the foreseeable future.
The first two Australian Growlers will be delivered around the middle of next year, after which they will spend about 12 months at USN locations undergoing test and acceptance trials together with the technical airworthiness work necessary for service release in Australia.
After completion in the second and third quarters of 2016 the other 10 EA-18Gs will be stored briefly and then flown to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington State – home to all USN tactical electronic attack squadrons - for acceptance tests and handover there to No. 6 Squadron early in 2017.
“We’re going to be spending a little time at Whidbey Island just testing aeroplanes, getting the crews converted to how we do things in Australia compared to the USN – some check list differences and so on,” says Group Captain Glen Braz, Director General Growler Transition Office.
“We’ll bed that down for a couple of weeks, then we’ll get some hours in with the jets just to blow the cobwebs away and make sure they’re nice and stable from a maintenance and serviceability point of view after storage, and we’ll fly the first six jets home in the first quarter of 2017.”
Training in the US Until later in 2017 the RAAF will have more Growlers than aircrew qualified to fly them, so the same team will then return to the US for advanced training on USN EW ranges with the second tranche of six Growlers before delivering them to Amberley around mid-year.
Meanwhile, the first four RAAF pilot and electronic warfare officer (EWO) aircrews will complete five months of training later this year with USN Electronic Attack Squadron 129 at Whidbey Island and then spend two years on exchange with the USN.
Two more aircrews will begin their training at Whidbey Island next year, and the RAAF’s first Growler pilot instructor is already on an exchange posting with the US Fleet Electronic Attack Wing at Whidbey Island. Additional aircrews will complete what Group Captain Braz describes as “just in time” training in 2016 and 2017.
Although Growler maintenance is broadly similar to that of the Super Hornet, in 2016 a number of RAAF avionics and maintenance technicians will attend two-month USN courses on the aircraft’s specialised mission equipment, with several then gaining experience with USN operational squadrons. Growler-specific technical training is expected to transfer to Australia early in 2017
Given the eventual arrival at Amberley of the 12 Super Hornet-derived Growlers in addition to the 24 in-service Super Hornets, two additional fixed base simulators are now on order for pilot/EWO training there. The simulators will be easily switchable via software from Growler to the Super Hornet configuration, and vice versa.
This range of complex and expensive preparations will support a capability generally and broadly described as the ability to disrupt or jam a range of military electronics systems, including radars and communications systems.
EW across the spectrum For GPCAPT Braz, Growler will add a layer of protection to everything currently undertaken by the ADF, across the spectrum of conflict and across the joint space.
“It’s a true whole-of-ADF force multiplier. It’s not just about Air Force, it’s also about joint operations, it’s about supporting the maritime forces, about supporting Land and Special Ops.
“We’ll be able to sense and influence the environment in ways that benefit our decision superiority and assure our own networks while degrading or denying an adversary’s network and communications,” he comments.
Used in either a stand-off or escort jamming role, the EA-18G will bolster the ability of the RAAF’s Super Hornets, in addition to that of the ‘classic‘ Hornets through to their extended life-of-type in 2022, to penetrate hostile territory for strike and ground support missions
Contrary to many assumptions, the Growlers will also be desired to support the JSF on many missions.
“We think the JSF can look after itself in many circumstances but we see both platforms as complementary capabilities and that allows us to tailor risk; the JSF has an excellent EW capability but ours adds another layer,” GPCAPT Braz comments.
This is presumably a reference to the JSF using its Northrop Grumman APG-81 radar for electronic attack (EA) – a capability which is however necessarily limited to jamming enemy emitters within its own frequency range.
“The EA-18G by design has a much broader and wider application of EA…. it is utilised as a theatre-level asset, attacking the full spectrum of threat kill chains from communications systems, surveillance, acquisition and fire control radar,” states Captain Scott Conn USN, who heads the strike branch in the office of the USN’s director of air warfare.
The emergence of very high frequency (VHF) radars capable of detecting stealthy aircraft such as the F-35 at long range may add further value to Growler capabilities, particularly with the advent around 2020 of the so-called New Generation Jammer which will replace the three ageing and high-maintenance AN/ALQ-99 pods (two mid-band and one low-band) carried by each Growler on jamming missions.
“We’re confident Growler can contribute to a bunch of effects against radars across the spectrum, I’ll leave it at that,” says GPCAPT Braz.
Maritime & land domains In the maritime domain, as an over the horizon sensor the Growler complements traditional maritime surveillance assets.
“We want to find the targets and find them fast. We can then assist in air engagement or, if it’s a surface engagement, by providing targeting locations. We can then assist in degrading the target vessel’s defences so our weapons have more chance of reaching the target “, GPCAPT Braz explains.
In the land domain, Growler can degrade counter-battery radar technologies; detect and identify communications links across the battle space and then either jam them, or inject misleading material. Probably its most important role in the land space is the degradation or destruction of hostile radar-based air defence systems, the latter option carried out with either the AGM-88 High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) or its follow-on development the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM).
“HARM is a suppression weapon; you fire it and often that causes the target to shut down and you’ve achieved your objective for a while,” says GPCAPT Braz.
“AARGM is far more precise and it has the capability even when systems shut down to find them, initially by careful targeting and then by the multi-mode seeker developed to defeat counter-measures introduced since HARM was first fielded in the 1980s.”
A training capability for both missile types was included in the Growler acquisition contract and will be provided to the RAAF by the USN and its industry partner Alliant Tech Systems in 2015 to support flight testing. The capability is understood to comprise a small number of captive training missiles and associated systems.
As yet no plans for the acquisition of operational missiles have been disclosed but this is considered a given.
As the only other operator of the EA-18G, Australia is plugging in to the massive US EW operational support infrastructure informing airborne EW and electronic attack.
“We’ve been sharing regional data for many years and now we’ve added Australians trained in EW through our own enterprises to the US Navy as a trusted partner within their team,” said GPCAPT Braz.
“That allows us to provide Australia with Australia’s requirements when they’re needed.”
All 12 aircraft are due to be in country by the end of 2017.
