Issue 330: Full Spectrum

Growler rollout heralds RAAF’s new electronic attack era

It will be a magnificent addition to the Australian Defence Force’s joint operations, and I predict it will have one of the biggest strategic effects for the ADF since the introduction of the F-111 in the 1970s,” newly-retired Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Brown, representing his successor Air Marshal Leo Davies, told the rollout ceremony for the first RAAF EA- 18G Growler.

The rollout of EA-18G A46-301 at Boeing’s St Louis facility on July 29 marks a new era for the RAAF, symbolising the introduction into service of an entirely new electronic attack capability, the utility and effectiveness of which – its strategic effect – seems to be little grasped outside, and even to a degree within, the ADF.