Superhornet (f/a18e/f) & Growler (ea-18g) Thread

Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Air Force Brat said:
Still a very pretty, well thought out airplane, the Super Hornet is a rare bird, upscaled and maintaining all the goodness of the original.
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Yes she is...and that one is the purpose built Growler version, the EA-18G, which is replacing the EA-6B Prowlers in US Navy service.

I hope that they further extend them with the Advanced Super Hornet configuration.
 
FORBIN

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Typhoon beat Super Hornet for Koweit deal normaly should be the end of Super Hornet and Growlers production for 2018 about.

Kuwait has reached an agreement with the Italian government linked to the planned acquisition of 28 Eurofighter Typhoons.
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* 530 delivered beginning in 2015
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S

Scratch

Captain
Some news on the Growler evolution:

New processing and datalink technologies will allow the fleet to correlate electronic emissions picked up by different aircrat for precise location at long ranges.
This sounds quiet interesting.

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USN upgrades EA-18G with long-range targeting system
  • 03 December, 2015
  • BY: Stephen Trimble
  • Washington DC
The US Navy has decided to upgrade the Boeing EA-18G Growler with a new datalink and other systems that allow the aircraft to identify vessels at long-range without using radar, Boeing announced on 1 December.

The retrofit and forward fit decision for the Rockwell Collins tactical targeting network technology (TTNT) datalink comes after the new identification capability was validated during the FLEX 2015 fleet experiment.

“This enhanced targeting capability provides our aircrews with a significant advantage, especially in an increasingly designs threat environment where longer-range targeting is critical to the fight,” US Navy F/A-18 and EA-18G programme manager Capt David Kindley said in a statement provided by Boeing.

Naval officials first disclosed the new capability for the Growler fleet last August, unveiling a new development in a decades-old game of adversaries using new techniques to elude and enable electronic identification.

The EA-18G already can use an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar – the Raytheon APG-79 – to identify targets at long-range, but using that emitter exposes the aircraft to detection by the intended target’s radar warning systems.

Alternatively, a set of wingtip-mounted electronic receivers – the Northrop Grumman ALQ-218 – also has used a processing technique called long baseline interferometry to identify targets. That technique keeps the EA-18G electronically stealthy, but it only works at short ranges.

More recently, however, the navy has been testing a new system enabled by the high-bandwidth TTNT datalink, a faster targeting processor with an open architecture.

The ALQ-218 receivers on each EA-18G first detect electronic signals emitting from a target. Then, the faster processor uses time difference of arrival techniques to determine the location of the emitter. That information is then shared with other EA-18Gs and the Northrop E-2D Advanced Hawkeye using the TTNT and open architecture-based processors. That combined processing power allows the group of aircraft to positively identify targets at long-range.

“This long-range targeting technology is essential as we advance electronic attack capabilities for the conflicts of today and tomorrow,” says Dan Gillian, Boeing’s vice-president for F/A-18 and EA-18G programmes.
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Brumby

Brumby

Major
Scratch said:
Some news on the Growler evolution:

New processing and datalink technologies will allow the fleet to correlate electronic emissions picked up by different aircrat for precise location at long ranges.
This sounds quiet interesting.

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Click to expand...
More recently, however, the navy has been testing a new system enabled by the high-bandwidth TTNT datalink, a faster targeting processor with an open architecture.

The ALQ-218 receivers on each EA-18G first detect electronic signals emitting from a target. Then, the faster processor uses time difference of arrival techniques to determine the location of the emitter. That information is then shared with other EA-18Gs and the Northrop E-2D Advanced Hawkeye using the TTNT and open architecture-based processors. That combined processing power allows the group of aircraft to positively identify targets at long-range.
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TDOA techniques are not new but it requires the technology to catch up to make it into a possibility. This type of technique would also be ideal for F-35's with their sensor fusion capabilities and one reason why I believe the developers insistence that the EA-18g was not necessary. Basically it requires real time data link between 3 spatially located emitters.
The advantage with the F-35's is that its sensors are fused between aircrafts and not dependent on the E-2D for the required links plus its comms. are LPI and hence more robust against ECM's.
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S

Scratch

Captain
Brumby said:
TDOA techniques are not new but it requires the technology to catch up to make it into a possibility. This type of technique would also be ideal for F-35's with their sensor fusion capabilities and one reason why I believe the developers insistence that the EA-18g was not necessary. Basically it requires real time data link between 3 spatially located emitters.
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Although I guess that by putting this technology on the Growlers, it will arrive a few years earlier, be there in greater numbers and is in the right spot on an electronic warfare aircraft.
So I will say that developing that Growler off a proven airframe was definitely worth it.
 
Brumby

Brumby

Major
USN begins F/A-18 flight certification of new anti-ship missile

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The US Navy’s newest and most sophisticated anti-ship cruise missile is a step closer to being fielded as standard on the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet after the first captive-carry flight with a weight- and form-representative payload over Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland.

The flight marks the start of F/A-18E/F airworthiness certification for the Lockheed Martin-built Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), and follows earlier ground-based load and fit checks at Patuxent River.

According to the manufacturer, the Super Hornet carried the programme’s "LRASM mass-simulator vehicle” on the initial airworthiness flight to examine basic flight and handling characteristics of the paired aircraft and munition. Further flights will gather noise and vibration data.

“The flight data acquired validates the LRASM system design and clears the way for the test programme to continue,” adds Lockheed LRASM director Mike Fleming.

Based on the air force’s long-time conventional cruise missile – the Lockheed Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) – LRASM is being fielded as a rapid capability to attack surface ships acknowledging the so-called “anti-access/area-denial” threat posed by China in the Pacific region.

The weapon, which is being procured as a stopgap measure, is designed to discriminate between cluttered potential targets and can hit ships with accuracy despite GPS jamming and electronic attack. The navy aims to field LRASM first on the Boeing B-1B, in 2018, and the F/A-18E/F, in 2019.
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