NAVAIR can afford, at most, one and a half new aircraft programs on top of the Super Hornet and JSF. The Super 'Tron Hornet (EA-18, replacing the EA-6B) would be the "half." The most urgent requirement for NAVAIR is an S-3/C-2 replacement, and the E-2 is getting long in the tooth as well. We have not funded any such replacement--and if we don't start NOW, we're going to have a Navy that requires Air Force tanker support, Air Force AWACS support, and the Air Force is going to have to take up outer zone ASW patrols for the carrier AND perform the COD mission as well, just to keep NAVAIR "viable."
"Jointness" only goes so far--the Navy seems to be expecting everyone else to take up THEIR unique missions for them. Ain't gonna happen.
The proposal is for developing the F/A-18G(Growler) which would replace the EA-6B. The F/A-18G would have the same limitations that the EF-111 Raven had and the only advantage would be speed. It would take three F/A-18G's to replicate the mission capabilities of one EA-6B. Also, preliminary cost analysis show that it would be cheaper to reopen the Prowler line than to introduce a new platform. 104 sets of new wings have been purchased so the entire Prowler fleet will be rewinged and the ADVCAP upgrade will keep the EA-6B's in the fleet for a long time to come.
Incidentally, Gillcrist is one sharp guy. He blows the fallacies about stealth technology out of the water in his article The Myth of Stealth