[Mr Rogers]

The EF-111 was still a better airframe for EA. Pity the USAF was stupid enough not to care - I doubt stealth will save us all!

Good to see the Navy is smart enough to do EA - just wish they had an airframe that had better legs. Still, an EF-111 landing on a boat would be frightening to all.

[tubebender]

Bttt...

[A.A. Cunningham]

hit a top speed of near Mach 1.6

“The Growler gives security to the aviators — the A-6 and the EA-6B are not go-fast airplanes,” he said. “Now you’ve got the added benefit of speed, you’re not over your target as long and have more energy to dodge missiles.”

Webster and MacDowell fail to note that a clean Super Hornet; no tanks and no pods, can't break Mach 1 under 10,000 feet.

[Vroomfondel]

ping

[ryan71]

Old Crows and Nav Air ping

[neodad]

the Navy’s aging inventory of EA-6B Prowlers, an aircraft that has been in use since the early 1970s.

The aircraft with the worst noise to speed ratio in history.

[BIGLOOK]

EW ping

[bill1952]

This island must be a world unto itself if the locals are cheering instead of demonstrating in the streets.
This is Washington State, after all. Sigh...

[PLMerite]

It would be nice if somewhere in the article they could say which state Whidbey Island was part of.

But the airplane looks cool anyway.

[ryan71]

“The plus about the Prowler is that you’re working at the very basic level. When the jet itself does not do as much for you, you actually learn your trade a lot better,” he said. “Getting into the Growler is basically learning the bells and whistles, where the switches are.”

For shipboard EW’s this is probably like switching from an AN/WLR-1C to an AN/SLQ-32.

The “Whirly” is very operator intensive which teaches the operator to understand signal analysis and rapid evaluation. The “Slick” is very automated for Anti-Ship Missile Defense.

Fun, fun, fun.

[RichInOC]

I’ve got to admit I like the idea of America dropping a Growler on enemy radar.

[ex-NFO]

I wonder how efficient the EW suite is, since so much of it is automated now with only two crewmembers. I went through the Navy’s EW school and was in Desert Storm, and the automated EW suites on most of the tactical aircraft were constantly misidentifying emitters.

[bigbob]

The F/A-18 is a well-proven platform, and this baby is Sierra Hotel!

[Squantos]

Logistically a great move , I am assuming the basic spares etc are common to the F18.

Stay safe AA !

[sionnsar]

Say WA? Evergreen State ping

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.

Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.

[magslinger]

SONOBUOY PING!

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