Navy Times
December 17, 2001
Pg. 20

Wear And Tear On Aging Prowlers Taking A Toll

High operations tempo, grounding of eight EA-6Bs add to strain on fleet

By David Brown, Times staff writer

When Navy strike jets tore into the night over Afghanistan on Oct. 7 and dropped bombs in the first crushing salvo of Operation Enduring Freedom, Navy EA-6B Prowlers led the way.

As the U.S. military s only airborne electronic jammer, the carrier-based jet is a critical part of most airstrike teams. The Prowler flies ahead of the strike group and disables enemy radars and weapons systems by jamming their frequencies with some of the world s most sophisticated electronics, clearing a safe path for U.S. and allied attack aircraft.

The Prowler is so important to the air-attack plan that it s considered a "go-no-go" asset in many missions. In other words, if the Prowler can t fly, no strike jets fly.

Increasingly, however, the ability to fly those missions could be hampered by the Prowler fleet s deteriorating condition. The Prowler is one of the hardest-working aircraft in the U.S. arsenal despite being one of the oldest; the demand for its services has grown in recent years, accelerating the wear and tear on its airframe.

The situation worsened markedly Nov. 28, when the Navy grounded eight Prowlers after cracks appeared on their center wing panels. Another 17 Prowlers of the fleet of 122 also show the aging signs and could be grounded. The stress problems aren t new: As of May 1, 51 Prowlers were forced to limit their flight practices to reduce stress on their wings, meaning 40 percent of the Prowlers had to fly gently to reduce wear.

"We are grounding aircraft at the same time we are trying to wage a war. This is unacceptable," said Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., who heads the Electronic Warfare Working Group on Capitol Hill, through a spokesman. "By grounding these aircraft, with many more in critical condition, we place even more stress on the remaining aircraft in the fleet."

And the problem likely won t stop with the Prowlers, said Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican and naval reservist who deployed with a Prowler squadron last year as an intelligence officer. The average age of Navy airplanes has reached 18, the oldest ever for the fleet, and the war on terrorism shows no signs of slowing down.

"That means we re burning up the lives of these wings as part of the war on terror," he said.

Renee Hatcher, a spokeswoman for Naval Air Systems Command, said the planes were grounded when Navy officials discovered "structural fatigue cracks" in the wing center sections of the jets.

The cracks stemmed from the type of aluminum used to build some of the Prowler s wing center-section inboard panels. The problem mostly affects Prowlers built before 1975, although some built later will require replacement. The aluminum in those Prowlers was more brittle and subject to fatigue than aluminum used in later aircraft.

Northrup Grumman built 170 EA-6Bs between 1971 and 1991. During a 1991 service-life assessment, the Navy predicted the problem with the wing sections and laid the groundwork to buy replacement panels for 102 aircraft by 2005. Thirty-three wing center sections have been replaced and the aircraft were returned to the fleet, Hatcher said.

But under a separate analysis earlier this year, the Navy calculated that the wings were reaching their limits sooner than projected, according to a budget planning document.

To keep the planes flying while exposing them to less fatigue, the Navy restricted in May the flight envelope for 51 Prowlers, limiting those aircraft to three Gs.

But even with the restrictions cracks grew on the wings of the eight aircraft. The wing center section begins two feet outboard of the fuselage and extends to the wing fold. Navy officials are still determining how many Prowlers are affected.

The Navy has enough money in the proposed fiscal 2002 budget for 10 replacements, which the budget planners said was "insufficient" to keep enough Prowlers flying. The Navy now is requesting a $35 million increase  for a total of $173 million for panel replacements  to do 18 replacements in the coming year.

Kirk, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the 18 replacements would be enough to get the Prowler fleet out of the hole  for now.

"We ll be in better shape," Kirk said. "But we need to plan on making sure Prowlers can fly for the next decade until the new assets are online."

The "new asset" would be the Prowler s follow-on aircraft. The Defense Department is finishing an analysis of alternatives  due to the Navy by Dec. 15  after which the Navy will choose what type of airframe will replace the Prowler. Options include a modified F/A-18F Super Hornet, an unmanned aerial vehicle or a commercial aircraft variant.

But the follow-on isn t expected to reach the fleet until 2010. In the meantime, the Prowler will have to continue to carry the electronic jammer mission for the entire Defense Department, since the Air Force shelved the military s only other jammer, the EF-111 Raven, in 1996.

Operation Allied Force in 1999 showed the Prowler was indispensable to most strike missions. The heavy operations tempo has contributed to the wing fatigue, Kirk said.

"We barely had enough to carry out the air campaign over Kosovo," he said. "How do we expect to have enough to wage a global war on terrorism?"

The Prowler is so important to the joint mission, said a senior Navy official, that the status of the Navy s EA-6Bs is briefed to Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Richard Myers and the Joint Staff daily.

"It s one of the many tools we have at our disposal that would be critical to the overall package," said the official, a Prowler aviator, who asked not to be named.

Prowlers monitor the electromagnetic spectrum and jam radar and communications, both in the air and on the ground.

Kirk used a pop culture example to emphasize the Prowler s importance. In the newly released film, "Behind Enemy Lines," an F/A-18F Super Hornet is shot down when an enemy on the ground spots the jet and uses a cell phone to call a surface-to-air missile operator, who then fires two missiles at the aircraft.

Had a Prowler been there, Kirk said, the aircraft could have jammed the cell phone call, keeping the enemy from communicating, and protected the Super Hornet.

"Anyone who saw that movie saw the need for the Prowler," he said.

In fact, Prowlers from the carrier Theodore Roosevelt were used in Operation Enduring Freedom to jam ground communications among Taliban forces, a new role for the aircraft.

Prowlers not only electronically blind radars, but the jets also can take out targets using high-speed anti-radiation missiles. The 800-pound missiles are used to detect and destroy radar-equipped air-defense systems.

Replacing the wing panels is critical for the Prowlers to continue that mission, Kirk said. The Navy needs the Prowlers to hobble the enemy s air defenses, and the Prowlers will need to pull more than three Gs if they re ever targeted by missiles. If the planes aren t fixed and the restrictions stay in place, Prowlers will have to conduct jamming operations far from the action, weakening their ability to do their job, he said.

Although there are probably enough planes to continue the air war over Afghanistan, the Navy is in trouble if the U.S. expands the war to other countries, Pitts said. Many are speculating the war could move on to Iraq, which is bristling with ground-based radar sites.

"While I do not expect this action will negatively impact our military operations in Afghanistan, I am concerned that should this campaign expand to other countries, we will pay the price of negligence with the loss of lives," Pitts said.

The overall health of the Prowler goes well beyond a specific aviation community, Kirk said.

"I think the Prowler is the key reason why the U.S. conducts air campaigns without losses," he said. "So when you see this, it s a warning sign that we may not be ready with a critical piece of our infrastructure that will ensure our aircrews return home safely."