AUSTRALIA

Growler technical details

Meanwhile, in light of the decision to wire 12 of the 24 F/A-18F Super Hornets on order for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) for the EA-18G Growler Electronic Attack role, here are a few technical details on the latter version of the aircraft.

      The Growler has more than 90% in common with the Super Hornet, sharing airframe, Raytheon APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar and systems such as the AN/AYK-22 Stores Management System. Most of the dedicated  airborne electronic attack equipment is mounted in the space used on the Super Hornet to house the internal 20mm cannon and on the wingtips. Nine external stations remain free to mount additional jamming pods or weapons.

      The electronics include AN/ALQ-218 wideband receivers on the wingtips, and ALQ-99 high and low-band tactical jamming pods. The ALQ-218 combined with the ALQ-99 forms a full-spectrum Electronic Warfare (EW) suite that is able to provide detection and jamming against all known surface-to-air threats except the Almaz-Antey S-300 PMU-1, PMU-2 and S-400 Triumf Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) systems. The US Navy has finally launched a competition for a Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) pod to rectify this shortcoming by 2018 (MPI March 1, 2009, page 7).

      Perhaps more importantly, the Block 2 Super Hornet will be the first fighter to use its AESA radar for electronic attack, with a software upgrade to allow its array of Transmit/Receive (T/R) modules to be interleaved and used as a powerful directional jammer, while still performing its more conventional roles.

     Under a Sensor Integration Plan, the APG-79 AESA radar will be linked to the Raytheon ALR-67 Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) via the fighter’s fibre-optic network switch. The radar’s ground mapping capability will then be used to pinpoint hostile emitters detected by the RWR.

     The BAE Systems ALQ-214 Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) suite will also be integrated so the aircraft can jam emitters. This will be  achieved by putting the ALQ-214 ECM jamming signal through the AESA T/R modules to put power on to the hostile emitter.

       The EA-18G can be fitted with up to five ALQ-99 jamming pods and will typically add two AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles for self-defence and two AGM-88 High Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARMs). The Growler will also use the INCANS Interference Cancellation System that allows voice communication while jamming enemy communications.

       In addition to the radar warning and jamming equipment, the Growler is also fitted a communications receiver and jamming system that will provide suppression and electronic attack against airborne communications threats.