Inside The Air Force
August 6, 1999
Pg. 7

Prowler Community Was Well Equipped For Kosovo, Participants Say

Jamming shortages did not hamper conduct of Allied Force

ANDREWS AFB, MD -- An overall shortage of jamming capability was not a problem during Operation Allied Force because of steps the Defense Department took to ensure the capability was present to support the air campaign. Extra EA-6B Prowlers were called in from the Navy Reserve unit stationed here, even before the presidential call up of reserve forces took place.

Because DOD "needed the aircraft," two available EA-6Bs were ordered to the theater to support the air campaign less than three weeks after the bombing began in late March, Navy Lt. Scott Laedlein told Inside the Air Force Aug. 4.

Laedlein is an EA-6B electronic countermeasures officer with the only Navy Reserve squadron of Prowlers, VAQ-209, at Andrews. He has spent his entire 10-year active duty career with EA-6 aircraft, and explained that the squadron is especially well prepared compared to an average reserve squadron because of the additional proficiency needed to perform the Prowler mission.

VAQ-209 was ordered deployed to Aviano Air Base, Italy, for an April 12 departure. The EA-6Bs were fully integrated into the air tasking orders to support Air Force and Navy aircraft during their strike missions against Yugoslav targets, Laedlein said, and went into combat within 24 hours of their arrival. Prowlers performed both standoff jamming missions for strikes and attacks of their own against radar installations using High Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles, sometimes on the same sortie, Laedlein explained.

The goal was to turn enemy radars off, he said, and whether that was done through jamming, HARMs, or merely the threat of missiles, was irrelevant. They all result in "mission accomplished," no Yugoslav radar tracking of attacking U.S. warplanes.

Like other EA-6B squadrons, VAQ-209 actually has four Prowlers, but two of its planes are currently in St. Augustine, FL, undergoing extensive maintenance work and overhaul. DOD is in the process of upgrading and pulling into service every available EA-6B to address the shortfall in jamming capability that has arisen with the retirement of the Air Force's EF-111 jamming platform.

With the various operations being supported, "the Prowler community is spread pretty thin," he said.

But, there was no shortage of in-theater jamming aircraft during Allied Force, Laedlein said.

"Sometimes it seemed like more than enough," for Allied Force. On occasion one EA-6B could perform the jamming role for a mission that included two Prowlers, and a second plane could be held in reserve because of possible contingencies or rules of engagement, he explained.

The Prowlers flew missions daily, with crews rotating and getting every sixth day off, on average, other Prowler officers said. The high number of sorties required an exemption from normal limits on flying hours.

It was "a huge step up in flying hours," Laedlein said, noting that he flew more than twice as many hours per month during the operation as he would in a typical month.

Although this clearly put more stress on the Prowler airframes, Laedlein said there were no readiness problems during the conflict. "Maintenance was stepped up," he said, but his squadron alone deployed over 100 enlisted support personnel "who know their planes inside and out."

"We did not have a problem with aircraft availability," he said, but training and maintenance were concerns, as they have been with the Air Force following the operation. And although it never resulted in operational problems, the supply chain made maintenance teams nervous, he said, because they were relying on an unfamiliar, long-distance logistics tail for spares.

The Prowlers returned to Andrews June 27, and have gone into a recovery cycle not unlike the reconstitution effort the Air Force is trying to implement for its overworked units.

-- Adam J. Hebert