Zephyr Net

The F18G Growler was rolled out at the Boeing works in St. Louis. The F18G is the Navy's replacement for the E6 Prowler ECM aircraft. The F18G is based on the Navy's F18F.

Pappy

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Tally Ho Pappy's In!

2 pods, 3 480 gallon tanks, you shouldent have to imagine too hard. Growler is mostly for escort jamming, a job the Prowler was never able to do for Hornets.

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.

CAG

You are right, it is E/A18G. My mistake. It should also help the maintance crews, since they will be working on another F18 airframe.

Regards,
Pappy

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Tally Ho Pappy's In!

After a certain build number ALL the SH's will have all the wiring to become a Growler when needed.

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.

Just like Prowler there wont be a standard loadout for Growler, it's all mission specific. I've seen Prowlers with just a centerline ALQ-99 for some missons, wont be any different for Growler. I strongly suspect newer pods are on the way anyway unless they have cancelled that for the AESA on the F-35 when it's available.
Personally I'm hoping they ok the air to ground mode for AMRAAM very soon as it would uncomplicate striker loadouts.

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.

Nonsense, the ALQ-99F(V) comes in at leaste 5 versions covering at leaste 9 bands with the ability to carry two bands to be jammed in each pod ( so three pods could jam 6 frequency bands simultaneously ). All the same length, all the same height all the same width ( 18 inches ) all within 70lbs of each other. The older original ALQ-99A(V) low band pod had a width of 24 inches at the bottom so just three inches more per side.
If anything I would say on the Hornet due to the closely spaced landing gear and wheel doors the centerline is where you WOULDENT want the older wider pod.

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.

The newer ALQ-99F(V) pods are all identicle now externally, you just plug in whatever 2 transmitters you want, to cover whatever two freqs you want to jam. There is technically just one generic pod to which the jammers are added as needed.

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.

I agree with CAG, this aircraft must have a fairly high drag coefficient. not to mention the big radar signature it will produce even if its jammers are turned off. I dont think the aircraft would be able to defend itself in a dogfight situation unless the fuel tanks are released which would place the mission jeopardy (or there might be no returning back). I think thats why it is not armed with sidewinders or more than 2 HARM missiles.

It would have been more preferable to use a more fuel efficient aircraft for this role such as the mighty f-15. (I know that some F-15C are already armed with HARMs). But an E-15 Growler would have been better!




The F-15E can carry the advanced alq-135 which protects against "Bands 1&2 (low-med freq), Band 3 (med-high freq), and (future) Band 1.5 (low-med freq)."
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... lq-135.htm



It can also carry the an/alq-184 jamming pod.

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Belly full of HELL

Ali you should stick to posting about things you know about, nearly everything you just said is wrong.

High drag coefficient compared to what? Prowler? Hardly, Hornets ( Super or otherwise) have a lower cross section, less drag and would be carrying all the same equipment externally as the Growler.

Bigger RADAR sig? Again compared to what? The Prowler is as big as a house on RADAR whereas the baseline SH is likely the "stealthiest" aircraft in production that was not designed from a clean sheet for stealth.

Couldent defend itself in a dogfight? A Hornet? I'll let you twist in the wind on that silly statement.

HARMS are for anti-RADAR use not shooting down fighters despite what might happen in sims. The Growler is for protecting Strikers from SAMs not fighters in a dogfight, it carries two AMRAAMs for self protection. F-35s and F/A-18s are fully capable of defending themselves.

If you had done some research you would find the F-15 carries only a few thousand pounds more fuel than even the old Hornet while running two less efficient engines. The Growler carries about the same amount of fuel as the F-15C. The F-15 cant operate from carriers and the ALQ-135 is only adequete, the ALQ-99 series is leaps and bounds more effective and much more powerfull.

Do you have any evidence of F-15C armed with HARMS????

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.

The ALQ-99F(V) pods were standardized for the EA-6B long long ago maybee mid '90s before any thoughts about the Growler.

_________________
Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.