A Boeing EA-18G Growler has logged an air-to-air kill over the Red Sea, a first for the carrier-based attack jet that has electronic warfare as its primary mission.
The US Navy (USN) on 14 July said the milestone took place during a nine-month deployment of the service’s Electronic Attack Squadron 130 (VAQ-130) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower to the southern Red Sea region of the Middle East.
There, the Eisenhower carrier strike group was tasked with defending both commercial and military ships from a barrage of missiles and suicide uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), which Houthi militants in Yemen have been firing into the Red Sea for months.
During that deployment, which concluded on 14 July, the USN says the Growlers of VAQ-130 conducted seven strikes into Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen, along with nearly 700 combat sorties to degrade the Houthi’s ability to threaten ship traffic.
“The aviators of the squadron saw malicious, indiscriminate use of Iranian-sponsored anti-ship ballistic missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles and one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicles,” the navy says.
“VAQ-130 was also the first Growler squadron in navy history to score an air-to-air kill,” the service adds, without specifying which variety of target an EA-18G downed.
Video footage released by the Pentagon over the lengthy combat deployment has shown multiple aircraft with painted-on kill markings resembling drone silhouettes and cruise missiles.
“I can’t remember the last time the navy had a more challenging deployment,” says Lieutenant Commander Carl Ellsworth, commander of VAQ-130.
Ellsworth describes the recent Red Sea tour as the USN having seen “the most kinetic action at sea since World War II”.
In addition to the historic air-to-air kill, Growler pilots notched another historic milestone, becoming the first fighter squadron to employ the Northrop Grumman AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) in combat.
The Growler is a derivative of the navy’s workhorse carrier strike fighter, the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. That twin-engined type makes up the bulk of the service’s fighter fleet, with some 575 F/A-18E/Fs in service, according to Cirium fleets data.
The USN’s 159 EA-18Gs look similar but have a different mission.
Equipped with advanced electronic warfare pods and radar-seeking air-to-surface guided missiles, like the AARGM, Growlers identify, disrupt and destroy enemy air defence systems.
The navy says the carrier air wing aboard the Eisenhower, which included four strike fighter squadrons, logged more than 30,000 flight hours across thousands of sorties during the deployment.
Such a high operational tempo likely forced commanders to get flexible with how aircraft were deployed. The EA-18G is certificated to carry the Raytheon AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, although air interdiction is not the type’s primary role.
