Electronic Warfare: Airborne electronic attack - a new offensive role for the RAAF | ADM May 2009
Tom Muir with Greg Ferguson, Canberra and Sydney
Concerned that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter would not be operational by the time the F-111 fleet was retired, the previous (Howard) government signed a contract in May 2007 for the acquisition of 24 F/A-18F Block 2 Super Hornets as a 10-year bridging air-combat capability.
There was of course the thought that with the introduction of these new strike/fighter aircraft, and the upgrading of the so-called ‘classic' F/A-18 fleet, delay in the introduction of the F-35s could not only be tolerated, but might actually be welcomed.
That would be the case if this provided breathing space for those charged with managing the impedimenta of bringing a new aircraft type into service, and if economies in the latter stages of production, reduce the price of the aircraft.
In many respects the acquisition of the Super Hornets was a no-brainer.
The type had been offered by Boeing years back as an alternative to the expensive AIR 5376 Hornet Upgrade (HUG) program and, as a true multi-role aircraft it offered the counter-air and ground attack capabilities the Air Force requires as well as the potential for F-35 lead-in experience.
The initial Super Hornet package offered to the RAAF includes:
• 48 installed engines and six spares
• APG-79 AESA radar in each plane
• Link 16 connectivity with the AN/USQ-140 Multifunctional Informational Distribution System (MIDS)
• LAU-127 guided missile launchers
• AN/PVS-9 night vision goggles
• 12 Joint Mission Planning Systems (JMPS)
• AN/ALE-55 fiber optic towed decoys
The Block 2 has a maritime strike capability and can also transmit JDAM coordinates to an F/A-18 via Link-16.
Recent disclosures about the range and capability of its APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, along with what is understood to be a very low Radar Cross Section (RCS) across its frontal aspect, suggest the Super Hornet Block 2 may be more capable and survivable than its critics contend.
These attributes, and the aircraft's ability to fire Harpoon Block 2 anti-ship missiles, may have been decisive in steering the RAAF and government towards a Super Hornet buy.
And the two-seat cockpit was selected over the single seat F/A-18E to enable a two-man crew to fully exploit the type's offensive and defensive capabilities.
RAAF pilots and rear-seat air combat officers (ACOs) begin training in the US this year, with No. 1 Squadron and No. 6 Squadron planned to become fully operational with the F/A-18F in 2010.
ADM understands that crews selected for training with the Super Hornets have been drawn in part from F-111 two-man crews, from classic F/A-18 pilots and from recent fast jet inductees.
ACO Training
Thanks to the introduction of new platforms with growing and complex sensor capabilities, the role of airborne electronic systems operators is expanding and demands new and varied skills according to mission types.
For example there are F-111 ‘navigators' and AP-3C crew which, beside the two pilots on long endurance missions, includes two flight engineers, a tactical co-ordinator, a navigator/communication officer, a sensor employment manager and six airborne electronic analysts.
Air Combat Officers are trained to handle many of these roles at the RAAF's School of Air Warfare.
Here the Air Combat Officer's ab-initio course includes a common module of training, followed by a specialist stream module.
The ACO common course includes ground school, simulation and airborne training and focuses on common ACO skills that are critical to achieving the vision for the category, such as mission systems management and mission command skills.
Common flying training on the King Air 350 is essential to allow a valid streaming decision and is the minimum required to instil the fundamental principles of mission systems management and command. The common course is 26 weeks long.
Following completion of the common course, students are streamed into one of three specialisations.
These are air battle management (ABM), maritime patrol and response (MPR) or air combat and tactical support (ACATS).
Students streamed for ABM conduct specialist training in the ground environment at the Surveillance and Control Training Unit at RAAF Williamtown.
Students streamed for MPR or ACATS receive additional specialist training including ground simulation and airborne training events.
All specialist training is 14 weeks long and upon completion all students graduate and are awarded the Southern Cross brevet.
Following graduation as ACOs, ABM ACOs proceed to the ground ABM environment for a consolidation period prior to possible selection for AEW&C employment.
MPR ACOs proceed to 292 SQN for an operational conversion to the AP-3C and ACATS students are further streamed to fast jet or transport.
Fast jet ACOs proceed to 79 SQN for lead-in training on Hawk aircraft prior to F/A-18F ‘Super Hornet' conversion.
Transport ACOs proceed to 285SQN to conduct C-130H conversion training.
Growler capabilities
The recently announced $35 million investment to convert half of the Super Hornets to the F+ configuration, that is to install cabling and wiring on the production line to enable their later conversion to EA-18G ‘Growler' electronic attack aircraft, will provide significant savings.
Completion of the project will require an additional investment of around $300 million.
That final decision will not be required until around 2012.
And if implemented, it will provide new roles for ACOs and new operational concepts for RAAF offensive air operations.
If acquired, the RAAF's Growlers will have an extraordinary range of jamming and suppression capabilities as well as complementary weapons systems.
(Although dedicated to the electronic attack mission, the aircraft can be changed from an EA back to an ‘F' with relative ease and vice versa.)
The EA-18 has more than 90 per cent in common with the standard Super Hornet.
It retains everything that the F/A-18F Super Hornet has currently with two exceptions.
The wing tip stations will have receiving antennas and the gun will be replaced with avionics boxes containing the LR-700 receiver and satellite communications, which interface with the ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System pods.
Nine weapons stations remain free to provide for additional weapons or jamming pods.
The EA-18G incorporates a version of the airborne electronic attack (AEA) suite developed for the Improved Capability (ICAP) III EA-6B (Prowler) upgrade.
This includes the AN/ALQ-218 wideband receivers on the wingtips, and up to five ALQ-99 high and low-band tactical jamming pods.
This system is designed to identify, degrade and destroy enemy radar-guided air defence and communication systems.
Its sensitive receiver and sophisticated algorithms allow selective-reactive jamming and threat precision geolocation capabilities.
Weapons typically include two AIM-120 self-defence missiles and two AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation (HARM) missiles.
It's not clear as yet whether or not the RAAF will order the AGM-88 in addition to other ‘Super Hornet-specific' armament such as the AIM-9X and AGM-154 JSOW.
Acquiring the HARM weapon would satisfy an operational requirement which emerged during the 1990s and was intended to be satisfied under the original Project Air 5398; this multi-phase, multi-weapon project collapsed under its own weight and complexity and resulted in the delivery of only the AGM-142 Raptor to arm the F-111, and the subsequent launch of Project Air 5418 to acquire the AGM-158 JASSM.
RAAF plans to acquire a small inventory of UK ALARM anti-radiation missiles during the late-1990s were never followed through.
The EA-18G will also use the INCANS Interference Cancellation system that allows voice communication while jamming enemy communications.
The Growler will also be able to use its active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar for electronic attack, with a software upgrade to allow its array of transmit/receive (T/R) modules to be used as a powerful directional jammer.
Under a sensor integration plan the Raytheon APG-79 AESA will be linked to the ALR-67 radar warning receiver (RWR) via the fighter's fibre-optic network switch.
The radar's ground mapping capability will then be used to pinpoint emitters detected by the RWR.
The Super Hornet acquisition generally, and a possible Growler acquisition in particular, will help introduce the RAAF to a very different level of EW capability: both EA, using dedicated jammers and the AESA radars on the Super Hornet and F-35A Lightning 2, but also modern counter-measures and the effects of low-observable treatments on the Super Hornet and, eventually, F-35A tactics, survivability and maintenance management.
Growler cockpit
The two-seat cockpit comprises the pilot crew station and the ACO's advanced crew station behind it.
The latter is equipped with a touch-screen mission systems control and display, a 203mm x 23mm full-colour tactical display, and two multipurpose 127mm x 127mm (5in²) screens.
The displays have tactical aircraft moving map capability.
The aircraft is equipped with HOTAS hands-on throttle and stick control and full digital fly-by-wire controls.
The rear station can be equipped with a stick to share flight control over long sectors.
The aircraft is fitted with a helmet-mounted cueing system providing ‘first look, first shot' high off-boresight weapons engagement capability.
The system enables the pilot to accurately direct or cue the weapons against enemy aircraft while performing high-g manoeuvres.
In the EA-18G, identical, independent displays with HOTAS functionality give both front-seat pilot and back-seat ACO access to all aircraft and mission information.
New Growler display formats correlate inputs from on-board sensors and off-board Link-16 MIDS intelligence sources in a coherent picture.
In developing the two-crew cockpit Northrop Grumman built an EA-18G Systems Integration Laboratory to develop Growler software and make sure the airborne electronic attack systems were compatible with one another and a crew of two.
This involved reducing the workload normally split between the two electronic systems operators in the larger EA-6B Prowler, to one operator in the Growler
A Growler crew station design group used NASA workload ratings to refine EA-18G data correlation.
While the basic display systems between Prowler and Growler are very similar, less detail is provided to the Growler at the top level nevertheless full detail remains available to the EA-18G operator who ‘drills' down into the AEA system.
The Growler crew will also manage new capabilities never available in the Prowler.
In contrast to the limited EA-6B radar, for example, the AESA radar in the EA-18G tracks multiple air and ground targets.
L-3 Communications Link Simulation and Training is building three EA-18G crew training simulators which will be identical to those built for Super Hornet crews, but Boeing will integrate software to provide an AEA threat environment.
The US Growler community has begun learning to crew its new strike-fighter-jammer, and currently are finding that the optimum mix is Hornet experience in the front and a Prowler person in the back.
If Growlers are built for the RAAF our bets are on a full 12-EA-18G complement.
In that case we can anticipate Hornet/Super Hornet pilots up front working with ACOs trained for AEW and AEA operations.
RAAF Growler missions
The EA-18G aircraft will be a missionised F/A-18F airframe providing capabilities to detect, identify, and locate hostile radio frequency emitters in order to direct jamming against radar and communications threats, and to fire suppression weapons such as High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARMs).
In response to questions by ADM the EA-18G Growler is typified as a force level electronic warfare support asset which enhances all land, sea and air capabilities.
"The EA-18G Growler is a separate, complementary capability for air strike and air superiority platforms like the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and Super Hornets.
"The Growler and JSF will be fully interoperable by design as the United States Navy plan to operate each of its aircraft carriers with two squadrons of JSF, two squadrons of Super Hornet and a flight of five Growler EA-18G aircraft out beyond 2030 on current planning."
There is a general understanding that AEA comprises five primary disciplines, each taking the action progressively closer to the target.
• Standoff jamming. Here aircraft loiter outside the range of enemy missiles while sending out powerful waves of long-bandwidth energy at an entire region of enemy territory.
• Escort jammers. The aircraft go in closer, flying alongside or near strike aircraft during their journey in hostile airspace. These fighter-type aircraft are equipped with pods that generate intense energy to saturate enemy radar receivers and blind them to the exact whereabouts of the strikers.
• Attack jammers. These are aircraft equipped with external pods or internal ECM systems to generate self-protection jamming as they near the target. New active electronically scanned array radars, or AESAs, have great power and huge potential to do some jamming and precisely identify and locate threat radars. Towed decoys also play in the self-protection ring.
• Stand in AEA. This role comprises systems designed to defeat enemy radars at practically point-blank range. UAVs and drones are better suited to this mission which is considered too risky for manned aircraft, and finally
• There is cyber-attack in which network attacks are used to trick enemy radars into turning off or presenting false information to their operators.
While we are not privy to RAAF AEA operational concepts we would assume that escort jamming would be perceived as a major role for Growlers in the land attack/strike role but that maritime strike might well be performed by weaponised EA-18G aircraft on their own.
Other roles are likely to include stand-off jamming and combat support jamming for the triggering of IEDs and the massive dislocation of mobile phone and other land communications prior to land operations by friendly forces.
No doubt consideration is now being given to the development of AEA operational concepts against the time that the ADF finally achieves an airborne offensive EW capability.