GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
US Navy likely to use DoD analysis of alternatives to justify development of variant
Boeing continues to refine the design of an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet electronic attack variant, as the results of a two-year Department of Defense analysis of alternatives (AoA) for the jamming mission are presented to senior officials.
Originally dubbed the F-18G, and now designated the EA-18, the electronic attack variant is based on the two-seat F/A-18F and predicated on the Block 2 upgrade of the Super Hornet now under way.
Boeing has provided pricing for 150 aircraft to replace US Navy Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowlers, jointly crewed by the US Air Force following retirement of its Grumman EF-111 Ravens.
Boeing has conducted low-speed and high-speed windtunnel tests of the EA-18, which reuses the EA-6B's jamming pods and the advanced receiver under development for the Increased Capability III Prowler upgrade. Pod fit checks have been accomplished on an F/A-18F and antenna tests have been conducted using a full-scale pole model.
"The EA-18 is primarily an integration programme," says Paul Summers, director F/A-18 derivative programmes.
"But it is not a trivial integration. It is a challenge." The major task will be assuring electromagnetic compatibility between the jamming pods and the aircraft's active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, radar warning receiver and digital flight controls.
The EA-18 has wideband receiver antennas in wingtip pods, with the receiver electronics on a removable pallet in the nose gun-bay.
Five jamming pods can be carried, although typically the aircraft would carry three pods, two tanks, two Raytheon AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missiles and two Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAMs air-to-air missiles for self-defence.
"All the basic Super Hornet multi-mission capabilities are carried through," points out Summers, describing the EA-18 as a "swing asset".
"Early in a war, the aircraft can be used as a jammer. Later it can be used for lethal SEAD [suppression of enemy air defences] or as a stand-off weapons platform," he says.
For communications jamming, a palletised wideband receiver would be installed in the gun bay and a low-band jammer pod carried.
Using the AESA, Raytheon ATFLIR targeting pod and SHARP reconnaissance pod as well as its receivers, the EA-18 could perform "full-spectrum surveillance", a capability Summers describes as a "mini-JSTARS [Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System]".
Although the AoA is unlikely to recommend a single solution for the electronic attack mission, the navy is likely to use the study to justify development of the EA-18.
Source: Flight International
