A Sample Feature From Aviation News

From Hornet to Growler

David Willis reviews electronic attack for the 21st century

Above: The first F/A-18F was used in a series of flight demonstrations carrying three ALQ-99 pods to determine their compatibility with the airframe. Production EA-18Gs will differ from the F-model externally as the wingtip launch rails will be replaced by pods containing electronics for the ALQ-218 system. (Photo, Boeing).

US Navy aircraft carriers are beginning to be dominated by one type of aircraft – the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet. It will replace its smaller cousin, as well as the powerful Grumman F-14 Tomcat and is also ousting the Lockheed S-3B Viking in the tanking role. There is one other field in which the Super Hornet will come to represent the state of the art for the US Navy, the vital electronic attack mission currently flown by the Grumman EA-6B Prowler.

In its initial form the EA-18G will take the mission electronics of the Prowler and blend them with the airframe of the F/A-18F Super Hornet. While this may seem an unambitious project, it is vital to the future of the US military’s abilities to conduct strikes against defended targets. It also marks the beginning of the end of the Prowler in US Navy service and highlights a new willingness to invest in electronic attack aircraft that has not been apparent since the widespread changes in the US electronic warfare (EW) community in the early 1990s.

Jamming retreat

The decision by the US Secretary of Defense to select the Grumman EA-6B Prowler as the sole tactical support jammer for all of the US military forces in 1994 resulted in the retirement of the US Air Force’s own dedicated fleet of tactical electronic jammer aircraft. While the US Air Force’s Grumman EF-111A Raven fleet had been converted from the oldest General Dynamics F-111s, it did provide an effective jamming aircraft capable of keeping up with the strike force on its way to its targets. This was proven on April 15, 1986, during the attacks on targets in Libya, when three EF-111As flew with 15 F-111F bombers to provide electronic jamming against the radars along the north African coast. Further proof of its effectiveness was demonstrated by its use in the 1991 Gulf War.

Around the same time as the USAF retired its EF-111As, the McDonnell Douglas F-4G Phantom II Wild Weasel – tasked with providing suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD) – was also withdrawn. The loss of the EF-111A and F-4G fleets was a blow for the Air Force, as it was left with a much diminished capability to mount operations independent of US Navy or Marine jammers. While the F-4Gs were to be replaced by HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile) Targeting Pod (HTS)-carrying F-16s, many saw this ‘bolt-on’ solution as a retrograde step.

Joint Prowler squadrons

Above: The electronic attack Super Hornet will be able to carry up to five ALQ-99s and still retain a useful self-defence capability because of the semi-recessed AIM-120 stations under the fuselage.

The replacement for the EF-111A was new joint squadrons of Grumman EA-6B Prowlers, the US Navy and Marine Corps’ standard electronic warfare aircraft. A total of four new squadrons were established as joint USN/USAF expeditionary units, to be deployed as needed in support of US military actions around the globe. About the same time the US Navy changed the squadron designations from being electronic warfare to electronic attack units, highlighting the newly adopted ability of the Prowlers to carry and fire the HARM.

While the new joint squadron arrangement sounded plausible in theory, in practice it caused some new difficulties. The Prowler has never been an abundant aircraft, having had a long but low-rate production run that ended with the delivery of the 170th aircraft on July 29, 1991. Attrition and operational use has meant that the number of Prowlers available has always been insufficient, even for the electronic warfare needs of just the maritime services themselves. When the expeditionary squadrons were stood up it diluted the fleet somewhat, adding flight hours and increasing the stress on the ageing airframes. The Navy also saw the new units as an additional source to incorporate into the carrier air wings, reducing the availability of the Prowlers to support US Air Force operational and training missions.

The logical solution was to increase the number of assets available to the US military that could undertake the electronic warfare and electronic attack missions. While this sounded easy, in practice the need was large and the funds were small. The US Air Force studied converting many types into stand-off jammers. For the US Navy the options were more limited, as it required the jammer to be able to operate from its fleet of aircraft carriers as well as ‘in the field’ with the US Marine Corps.

Cancelled programmes

The US Navy suffered a major blow in 1991 when the General Dynamics/McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II low-observable strike fighter was cancelled. Reportedly one of the worst managed programmes in aviation history, cost overruns and delays had resulted in its axing. This left the US Navy with a gap in its carrier air wing of the future. In the long term, the Joint Strike Fighter would provide the strike capability for the carrier air wing, but a short to medium-term need would became evident as older Grumman A-6 Intruders and Boeing Hornets became due for retirement.

Although when it entered service in 1983 the Hornet had been a quantum improvement over the F-4 Phantom and LTV A-7 Corsair it had replaced in the fighter-attack and light attack squadrons, it suffered from a few short-comings. These included a perceived lack of range or the ability to carry a heavy warload over long ranges, the inability to bring back a full-load of weapons to a carrier (resulting in the need to dump them in the sea before landing – an expensive process) and limited internal space for growth.

McDonnell Douglas was well aware of these problems and had started to look at the possibility of a larger version of the aircraft under the auspices of a 1987 US Department of Defense contract. Known as the Hornet 2000, several configurations were studied. All featured increased fuel, improved engines, an active radar and advanced electronic warfare equipment. A configuration with fuselage plugs and a larger wing with increased chord and span emerged as the favourite by late 1990. Dubbed the ‘Super Hornet’ for obvious reasons, it promised enough of an improvement over the existing aircraft without the need for a totally new development programme.

McDonnell Douglas offered a step-by-step method of improving the capabilities of the US Navy’s carrier-based attack squadrons. Range and load-carrying ability would be improved by adopting the larger airframe, leaving radar and avionics upgrades to be added at a later date.

Early in the 1990s the Navy Advanced Tactical Fighter (NATF) programme – seeking a navalised version of either the Lockheed Martin YF-22 or Northrop Grumman YF-23 as a replacement for the Grumman F-14 Tomcat – also became a victim of the post-Cold War budget realities. The importance of the Super Hornet programme thus increased when it also assumed the role of fleet air defence fighter to replace Grumman’s ageing swing-wing fighter.

Above: The great challenge with the integration of the ICAP III suite within the Super Hornet is coming down from a three-man mission crew to one guy in the back seat. Cockpit layout and electronics that reduce the workload of the ECMO have helped but it still remains to be seen if such a proposal is effective in combat. This Electronic Countermeasure Officer (ECMO) is assigned to the ‘Scorpions’ of Electronic Attack Squadron One Three Two (VAQ-132). (Photo, U.S. Navy/Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Michael Sandberg).

Two versions

The vast majority of combat first generation Hornets are single-seaters, the exceptions being the F/A-18Ds used by the US Marine Corps. Experience in combat had shown that the need for a second crew member in the attack role to operate the weapon systems, leaving the pilot to concentrate on evading anti-aircraft defences was clearly evident. Thus two versions of the Super Hornet were planned, single and two-seat. The single-seater became the F/A-18E, with the F/A-18F designation being applied to the two-seaters which were to form the basis of the Tomcat replacement. Unlike the aircraft it replaced, it would also undertake the ground-attack role from the start as well as the fleet air defence mission. The single-seat version would primarily replace the earlier generation of carrier-based Hornets.

An order for seven Engineering Manufacturing and Development (EMD) aircraft, consisting of five Es and two Fs, was placed in fiscal year 1994. Maiden flight was made on November 29, 1995, but test pilot Fred Madenwald had to cut the flight short after an environmental-control-system bleed door failure.

The seven EMD aircraft had all flown by mid-October 1996, with introduction to the fleet being undertaken in the summer of 2000. By November 2002 Super Hornets were being used in combat over Afghanistan. In addition to the strike and air defence roles, the Super Hornet was also being used in the tanking role using a buddy system. Unlike the Lockheed S-3B Viking, the Super Hornet could operate much closer to enemy airspace because it had the capability of defending itself.
Deliveries of the Super Hornet to the US Navy continue, with the 200th shipset being delivered in May 2004. Boeing has also been promoting the aircraft to potential export customers and it cannot be long before the first example is delivered to a foreign air arm.

Above: The EA-6B Prowler was developed from the A-6 Intruder, although an earlier version of the Intruder (the EA-6A) had been used by the US Marines to replace EF-10B Skyknights in the ECM role. In service the Prowler has had its systems constantly upgraded, moving away from the stand-off jamming role to the more active suppression of enemy air defences when it was cleared to fire the HARM missile. (Photo, Northrop Grumman).

Below: The EF-111A Raven was unarmed but had a longer range than the Prowler. A squadron was based at RAF Upper Heyford, serving alongside F-111Fs, while others were based at Cannon AFB, New Mexico.

For the rest of this article please see the December 2004 issue.