The EA-18G Growler electronic warfare plane participated in its first combat missions as part of Operation Odyssey Dawn over Libya, according to the Navy’s top officer.
The Growler, built by Boeing [BA], is replacing the legacy Northrop Grumman [NOC]-built EA-6B Prowler. Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, said the Pentagon’s original plan was to put the new aircraft on carriers and keep the legacy aircraft in the expeditionary role.
“About a year and a half ago I made a decision that we were going to put the new stuff into the fight,” Roughead said. “Because you put the best you’ve got into the fight you’re in, and also I wanted to see how the airplane would perform.”
The admiral was speaking to reporters at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington.
Expeditionary Growler squadrons are made up of five airplanes, Roughead explained. One squadron had been flying overwatch missions in Iraq since January, the admiral said, and was diverted to Aviano Air Base, Italy, when air strikes on Libya got under way.
“Within forty-eight hours they were flying combat missions,” he said.
The admiral added that the Navy is “pleased” with the aircraft thus far. According to a Pentagon source, Growlers’ flew in support of Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers operating from the USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) conducting air strikes against both Libyan air defenses and armored vehicles. The Growlers jammers were used to block radars and communications transmissions, according to the source.
The Growler is based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash. Boeing has delivered 36 aircraft to date, and the Navy in September awarded the company a new F/A-18E/F and EA- 18G multi-year contract for 124 aircraft, to be delivered starting next year. The contract includes 66 Super Hornets and 58 Growlers.
The strikes against Libya also mark the first combat use of the converted ballistic missile submarine USS Florida (SSGN-728), Roughead said.
The admiral also praised the recover of two F-15E crew members earlier this week. Roughead said the airmen ejected over Libya after their aircraft experienced “mechanical difficulties.” The Kearsarge launched a V-22 Osprey to recovery them, he said.
“The way it came together, the synchronicity of operations, the involvement and coordination among the different participants, it all went quite well,” he said.
In a look behind the scenes of the operation, Roughead said he was concerned in the run-up to the strikes about Libya’s integrated air and missile defense system. He acknowledged that the system was old but added that he didn’t “take any of that for granted.
“If someone is going to put a missile in the air, you don’t say, ‘Oh, it’s an old one, I’ll worry about it later,'” he said.
According to Roughead, the operations to date have not been particularly costly.
“When you look at the expenses of what we in the Navy incurred, given the fact that we were already there, those costs are ‘sunk’ for me,” he said. “I’m already paying for that.”
Thus far, expenses include additional flying hours and Tomahawk missiles used in the strikes, the admiral said.