Electronic Warfare: Questions Emerge After Congress Prohibits Growler Divestment.

• Author: Tegler, Jan

When the House passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023, it included a section requiring the Navy to maintain "a minimum quantity of high-demand, low-density EA-18G aircraft capabilities."

The section--"Requirements Relating to EA-18G Aircraft of the Navy" --is Congress' response to a proposal included in the Navy's 2023 budget request released in March, calling for the decommissioning of the service's five active, land-based expeditionary electronic attack squadrons and the approximately 1,020 officers and enlisted personnel that comprise them.

Under the plan, divestment would be complete by 2025 with the squadrons' 25 expeditionary Growlers placed in "long term preservation" at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, known as "the boneyard."

An aide on the House Armed Services Committee who agreed to speak on background said the section prohibits the Navy from retiring any of the 160 aircraft that make up the entire Growler fleet--which includes the 25 expeditionary and 13s carrier-based aircraft. The provision requires that the Navy "retains a fleet of a minimum of no less than 158 aircraft with 126 of those that need to be primary mission-capable at all times," the aide said.

Operational since 2009, the Growler is the U.S. military's only airborne electronic attack aircraft capable of providing offensive or "stand-in" jamming of integrated air-defense systems. The 25 aircraft in the Navy's expeditionary EA-18G squadrons serve the Joint Force, operating primarily in support of Air Force taskings and providing electronic warfare support for coalition forces.

The service's request stated that the divestment would save $807.8 million in future years, but the reasoning behind the proposal wasn't explained. That struck many observers as odd. "I think we're not even scratching the surface on ways that we can use that aircraft," former Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot Rep. Jake Ellzey, R-Texas, said.

"For the immediate threat, nothing else does what the Growler does," he said. "It is in high demand from combatant commanders. I don't know what the intent of the proposal was, but we have an agreement. We have it for a reason, and it's got to be fulfilled."

The agreement Ellzey is referring to is a memorandum with the Air Force signed by the Navy to maintain five expeditionary Growler squadrons for use in joint missions that require offensive electronic warfare...