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Like a lot of hopes and dreams cut short by lack of funding, the Growler will arrive low calorie: the diet coke of jammers.
What may have been a great jamming setup years ago, does not hold true today and the Navy knows it. Of course their hands are tied by money issues and in this case, joint "stake holders" didn't come through with what was really meant for the Growler and other platforms: The Advanced Next Generation Jammer.
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The Navy was using the short-comings of the old 99 series pods as a selling point for the next gen jammer. And now, the Navy has to deliver that same old technology to the fleet, the ALQ-99 and like it. So the Navy is just trying to get something on the deck on schedule with the available money. As soon as it is on deck, no matter if there is joint help or not, Growler will need more advanced jamming equipment.
Add to that, hanging a lot of drag on to the Super Hornet doesn't do it any favors. Woof, woof.
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This will be one tanker dependent drag-o-matic and it will not be able to keep up with the faster and long range F-35.
There are also some GAO issues to sort out with the existing Growler ECM system. Here is what the GAO recently said about the Growler program.
Other Program Issues
Development tests of the EA-18G revealed 28
deficiencies, six of which need to be corrected
before beginning operational testing. Operational
testing is expected to begin in September 2008
and will not be completed until December 2008.
According to the program office, it has fully
addressed two of the six problems--a failure to
detect a threat without operator indicator and the
assignment of jammers to incorrect emitters--and is
working to correct the remaining deficiencies. These
additional deficiencies include airborne electronic
attack system lockups, the lack of adequate threat
warning information about pop-up weapon system
emitters, and addressing the excessively time-
consuming and cumbersome process to build the
mission planning system and database.
In addition, the DOD Director, Operational Test and
Evaluation, identified operator workload of the two-
man EA-18G crew in electronic attack and electronic
support missions--currently performed by the four-
man EA-6B crew--as a program risk.
-- Source:
GAO
United States Government Accountability Office
Report to Congressional Committees
March 2008
DEFENSE ACQUISITIONS
Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs
GAO-08-467SP
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08467sp.pdf
In the end, the Growler will be able to do some damage against legacy integrated air defenses (IADS). It won't be providing the bang for the buck the U.S. Navy wanted for future threats. Since the aircraft is an escort jammer and not a stand-off jammer, it will be at some serious risk if it gets too close to modern IADS.
So, like the original Super Hornet introduction to the fleet, Growler will be on an upgrade spiral for some time to come. As delivered to the fleet, it will be yesterday's jammer.
Slides from www.dtic.mil dated 2002-3
Special thanks to Carlo Kopp for explaining some technical things.
2 comments:
Interesting article Eric.
What alternative would Australia have if it didn't get the Growler.
Modify the Wedgetails? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Wedgetail
or modified F-35s or F-22s?
Pete
Hard to say. As we know, there are rumblings out there of RAAF having some kind of dedicated jammer via Growler. I see it more as a justification after the fact of the flawed Super Hornet purchase decision.
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