Boeing and Northrop Grumman are asking the US Navy to contribute pre-development funds to the proposed EA-18 electronic attack aircraft programme so that risk-reduction and flight validation can continue using a modified F/A-18F.

The USN has identified 10 areas of risk associated with the EA-18, formerly the F/A-18G Growler, which it wants Boeing and Northrop Grumman to address. These include testing for noise and vibration with the ALQ-99 jammer pod under the wing; wing flutter; electromagnetic interference (EMI); crew vehicle interface; and repackaging of the LR-700 receiver from the Northrop Grumman EA-6B to fit the EA-18.

Boeing and Northrop Grumman have spent around $1 million of their own money to flight test a two-seat F/A-18F development aircraft, mounting three ALQ-99 pods, together with underwing tanks and Raytheon AIM-120 and AIM-9 air-to-air missiles. The aircraft has flown to Mach 0.8 and between +3g and -1.5g with no effect on or from the pods. There are plans for more flights in 2002 to extend the envelope to transonic speed.

Some work has already been performed on the ground with windtunnel testing, and consulting with around 300 aircrew on the design and effectiveness of the EA-18's two-seat vehicle interface design in place of the current four-seat EA-6B. EMI testing has been conducted on the aircraft's digital flight control system to ensure protection from jamming, and the partners would like to extend this to include full chamber testing of the aircraft.

The EA-18 team would also like to equip the F/A-18F with proposed wingtip antennas in place of theAIM-9 missiles. These would connect with the LR-700 receiver, which would be altered to sit behind the fighter's Raytheon Active Electronic Scanned Array (AESA) radar. The EA-18 and post-2005 F/A-18Fs would be equipped with the new radar, which features a narrow-band noise jamming capability.

The radar will not initially be integrated with the LR-700. The USN's focus is on minimising new development costs to around $1 billion by grafting the EA-6B's new ICAP 3 suite with the EA-18. Follow-on development could include a redesigned jammer pod, integrating the LR-700 with AESA, possibly expanding its capabilities to replace the ALR 67(V3) radar warning receiver and replacing the US-113 communications jammer.

Source: Flight International