Defense Daily
June 6, 2002
Pg. 1

Aldridge OKs Three-Part Plan To Follow EA-6B

By Hunter Keeter

Pentagon acquisition chief Pete Aldridge has given the verbal go-ahead for Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps officials to brief Congress on a three-part plan that includes Boeing’s [BA] EA-18 airborne electronic attack (EA) aircraft to replace the aging fleet of EA-6B Prowlers, according to Pentagon and Capitol Hill sources.

The plan was reviewed by Aldridge during a June 4 meeting and includes having the Navy purchase as many as 90 EA-18s, with the Marine Corps continuing to operate the Northrop Grumman [NOC] EA-6B, and the Air Force proposing to hang jamming equipment off the wings of some Boeing B-52 heavy bombers.

According to one Senate aide, the plan would, if presented to Congress in its present form, meet stiff resistance largely due to the fact that it creates three separate solutions to the EA mission in place of the joint solution offered by today’s EA-6B fleet

"Eight years ago when then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin Powell killed the Air Force’s EF-111 Raven program, the Pentagon made the EA-6B a national jamming asset, with the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps all operating the same platform," the aide said. "[The June 4] decision apparently made by Aldridge is a 180 degree reversal of that good decision from eight years ago...creating multiple stovepipes."

The military services had planned to brief Congress as early as today on the EA follow-on plan, but that has been delayed as the Pentagon works out the details of an acquisition strategy that could be presented to the Hill.

The EA follow-on plan is derived from a more than two-year analysis of alternatives (AoA) to the EA-6B, with Pentagon officials having acknowledged that the aging aircraft cannot be economically kept in service. The AoA reviewed 27 options to replacing the EA-6Bs, aiming at an initial operational capability date of around 2009, when the older jamming aircraft may start to retire.

A Boeing official confirmed that Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) officials met yesterday with Boeing representatives in St. Louis, where the EA-18 would be manufactured, though few details of that meeting have been revealed.

The Pentagon’s evolving EA acquisition strategy calls for a blend of systems to support the jamming mission area, including a series of upgrades to sensors, platforms and the possibility of adding roles for unmanned systems to play in the EA mission area.

The follow-on EA acquisition strategy would still require Aldridge’s formal approval before the office of the secretary of defense submitted it to Congress as part of a defense budget request. The follow-on EA acquisition is expected to become part of the FY ‘04 budget’s program objective memorandum.

In addition to reviewing the EA-18 concept, Aldridge reviewed and generally approved of the Air Force’s "family of systems" EA approach, according to one Pentagon source. The Air Force plan could include the use of advanced electronically-scanned synthetic aperture radar-equipped Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-22 or F-35 Joint Strike Fighters; a disposable miniature air-launched decoy jamming system; and perhaps an EA version of the unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) technology under development by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The Air Force has also proposed other options, including equipping Lockheed Martin C-130 transports with jamming equipment as well. It remains to be seen which blend of Air Force systems the final acquisition strategy supports, the Pentagon source said.

Both the Air Force and Marine Corps have backed the use of the JSF in the jamming role. But the EA AoA indicated a two-seat jamming aircraft as a minimum crew complement, to replace the four-seat EA-6B. The current JSF concept is for a single-seat aircraft.

The F/A-18F Super Hornet is a two-seat platform that Boeing has proposed converting to the EA mission. A surrogate EA-model Super Hornet has undergone testing at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md. (Defense Daily, March 26).

Current EA-6B Prowler outfits are flying the Block 89A aircraft, which includes the latest fielded upgrades to the EA-6B airframe and electronic systems. The Improved Capability III (ICAP III) program now underway at NAVAIR includes as its centerpiece an improved receiver system that could be fielded over the next five years.