Force level

The Growler’s ability to have a combat effect without using “kinetic” weapons is, says CAF, “a real mind shift”.

“What it might be able to do that is, at least, as effective as a kinetic weapon, but much more palatable, because we won’t be hurting people.”

Indeed, on reflection CAF says in the nearer term at least that Growler represents a bigger step-change for the ADF than the arrival of the vaunted ‘fifth gen’, stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

“We’ll be having a [non-kinetic] combat effect. And that, I think, is a real mind shift. The arrival of the F-35 is just another fighter, in some respects.

We’ll be having a non-kinetic combat effect. CAF AIRMSHL LEO DAVIES

Nonetheless, CAF reflects, “It will take time for us to understand how much the F-35 will change our business.”

Embracing that mind shift since Australia’s Growler acquisition was confirmed in 2013 has been the task of the RAAF’s 6 Squadron, which is the Growler operating squadron, and its parent 82 Wing.

Since October 2013 6SQN aircrews, pilots and back-seater electronic warfare officers, have been training with and serving on US Navy Growler squadrons. Growler aircrew conversions were undertaken with VAQ-129, part of Electronic Attack Wing Pacific based at Whidbey Island near Seattle in Washington State, with crews subsequently going on to serve with operational Growler squadrons to build up and consolidate electronic warfare skills and knowledge.

Acquiring an electronic warfare aircraft and platform might be a “straightforward move on paper, but EW tacticians will understand that EW requires a vast depth of knowledge beyond the equipment,” the US Navy’s Commander Michael Lisa wrote in a January blog post for the US Naval institute about US-Australian cooperation in introducing the Growler into RAAF service.

“There is a ‘je ne se sais quoi’ ingredient to EW. As the RAAF realised, this ingredient lies within the people and the know-how,” wrote CDR Lisa, the EA-18G requirements officer at the Electronic Attack Wing Pacific.

“Traditional FMS transactional activity could not capture the ‘je ne sais quoi’ ingredient, it required compressing seven decades of EW corporate knowledge into 24 months. If anyone could make that leap, it’s the RAAF.”

But it was a leap for the US Navy too. Previously the high-level knowledge of electronic warfare capabilities, tactics and techniques needed to successfully operate the Growler were a closely-guarded secret, not shared with foreign service personnel, even of close allies such as Australia.

“Integrating RAAF aircrew into the FRS and then into operational VAQ units meant moving mountains,” wrote Cdr Lisa.

But, “The short story is that we did it.”

“Senior Navy, US DoD, and RAAF officials took risks, trusted their teams and approved the necessary things to ensure the partnership would be durable. The team believed in the mission and got it done.”

And the results are “nothing short of epic.

“During their two years of service, RAAF aircrew did more than simply learn EW tradecraft and ‘tick the box’, or ‘tick’ as the Aussies would say. Instead, RAAF officers excelled at nearly every squadron leadership position including, but not limited to: acting executive officer, operations officer, training officer, division officer(s), and standardisation officer. RAAF officers served in every critical billet in an EA-18G squadron and did so with the utmost professionalism and dedication.”

That relationship with the US Navy should prove enduring, as RAAF aircrews will continue to train with VAQ-129 and there will be permanent RAAF and USN electronic warfare exchange positions.

“Aligning EW methodologies is an incredible asset to both Australia and the US. Aligning tactical know-how and EW methodology is critical to our shared interests, and it was imperative that Australia gain this knowledge,” wrote Cdr Lisa.

“EW is unlike kinetic air-to-ground payloads that simply require target coordinates, or an air-to-air missile that needs an appropriate target. It requires our sensors to call the signals the exact same thing, employ the exact same waveforms/payloads, and deliver at the exact same time with exact positioning. If we do not put the ‘right’ payloads on the ‘right’ target, we undo each other’s effects, degrade blue systems (called electromagnetic interference – EMI), or completely miss the target. Simply put, having the same equipment is not enough. Mission effectiveness requires that we think alike, train alike, and speak the same EW language.”

Now with the Growler’s arrival in Australia 6SQN’s focus changes from not just learning how to operate the jet and to conduct electronic warfare missions, to how to operate the jet in Australia and in an Australian context, and to the infrastructure and support needed to operate the aircraft in Australia.

That phase began on January 25/6 when an Australian Growler was flown by a RAAF crew for the first time – after the official rollout of the first RAAF Growler in July 2015 most 12 jets were subsequently placed into storage while aircrew and maintainer training with the USN was underway. Some of the RAAF Growlers flew from Naval Air Weapons Centre, California undertaking software testing, while before all 12 aircraft were handed over to the RAAF by early February, government-furnished equipment was installed and a small number of engineering modifications were made, again at China Lake, to bring them up to the latest Growler production standard, before they were handed over to the RAAF at Whidbey Island.

“That’s part of our initial OT&E (operational test and evaluation) plan to make sure everything works in the US context where we’re very close to all the support people, so if there’s problems we get rapid turnaround,” Group Captain Tim Churchill, Director Growler Transition Office, explains.

Then on February 17 the first RAAF Growlers depart Whidbey for Amberley, while a few days later two of the jets were then due make the type’s public debut in Australian service at the Avalon Airshow.

“But then as soon as the airshow’s finished we’re sending the aircrews and maintainers back to the US to finish our initial OT&E program, which basically goes for the first half of calendar 2017,” GPCAPT Churchill said in a late-January interview.

“Normally; people tend to think OT&E is about making sure the ‘whoosh bang’ of the weapons go, but actually for us it’s making sure that all the publications are there; the maintenance guys are well trained, the supply system is there.” GPCAPT Churchill said.

“We’re looking at testing much more of the ‘ilities’, if you like, making sure the data flows through from intel through mission planning into the jet, making sure all that kind of stuff works.

“We’ve got a program which basically checks all that and it culminates in a live fire at China Lake in May.”

It culminates in a live fire at China Lake in May. GPCAPT CHURCHILL

That live fire exercise will validate the RAAF Growler’s ability to fire the HARM and ARGM anti-radiation missiles and the AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile.

Another key element of OT&E is running the first operational transition course for Growler aircrews. About half of 6SQN’s Growler aircrews have come off other RAAF aircraft and so are familiar with operating in Australia and Australian-specific procedures, but the other half have “come straight through our training pipeline and the US Navy pipeline and they’ve never flown fast jets in the Australian context. So we’ve designed a an operational transition course, to teach them how to fly Australian instrument approaches, how to operate around an Australian airfield, how to fly you know tactical formations at night using Australian procedures, those kind of things.”

By the time of Avalon 6SQN will have six qualified Growler crews (a pilot and EWO) as the unit works to achieve initial operational capability (IOC) in 2018, ahead of final operational capability in the early 2020s.

Key to achieving that FOC milestone are the range facilities and threat emitters Growler crews will need to train against, with the Delamere Air Weapons Range near RAAF Base Tindal in the Northern Territory to undergo a number of upgrades, including the installation of electronic warfare range systems to support Growler training.

In early December the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced approval for the sale of Australia of EW range systems to support the Growler under a US$115 million package that includes equipment, support and training. According to the DSCA announcement, the Australian government requested two range systems with which to conduct electronic warfare and electronic surveillance training in Australia. Prime contractors for the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program would be Leidos for hardware and General Dynamics Mission Systems for software.

Under a separate FMS project ex-Soviet Union military equipment like air defence radars and radios are being acquired to be installed at Delamere.

“So [at Delamere] we’ll be able to have an array of targets on the ground that Growlers can actually jam,” said GPCAPT Churchill.

Growlers will regularly use the Delamere range where they can use active jamming.

Other threats will be emulated.

“We’ll have emitters out there that that do emulation, and our system is being built for anyone to bring their stuff into and plug it into, so whether it comes from US ranges or from UK wherever, or you know we just build our own kind of stuff we’ve got we’ve got a system that’s fitted for but not with all the connections to run those things.”

Within the Growler acquisition project itself a Mobile Threat Training Emitter (MTTE) system is being acquired for Growler EW training near their Amberley home base, as the aircraft won’t use their active jamming pods

“Essentially what that is is a couple of vans that will be round the western airspace in Amberley that put out signals in space,” explained GPCAPT Churchill. “The idea is the aircrews can find, geolocate and identify these [emulated emitters] using their tactics, techniques and procedures in the fastest possible time.

“Around Amberley there’s no plans to be transmitting out of the out of the jamming pods, it’s just receive only.”

Instead Growlers then can expect to deploy regularly to Tindal to fly over the Delamere range where they can use active jamming.

“But the most complex ranges and the most complex missions will be in the US, and so we’ve set aside budget to go there at least every couple of years to participate in exercises like Red Flag.”

GPCAPT Churchill notes that the Growler’s new-to-the-ADF electronic warfare capabilities means there’s also “a lot or work” to do in the command and control elements.

“So how do you command and control it, how are the computers connected, how’s the intel flowing in and out, and includes things like targeting, where do we put the ‘trons and why, and how do we deconflict the electrons from our own friendly stuff, and making sure we’re actually enhancing the picture rather than degrading it for our own friendlies.”

Notes GPCAPT Churchill, “with an aircraft that can fly around at 0.8 Mach and go quite along way there’s a lot of people you have to coordinate with.”

Another aspect of coordination is using the Growler for EW training more broadly with other ADF elements like ships and ground forces.

“As Air Force becomes more mature in this space and the ADF eventually, the training audiences are going to have to get wider. So instead of just training an individual Growler crew we’re actually going to need collective training systems for the whole of the ADF,” noted GPCAPT Churchill.

“Moving forward I see a real need to do more synthetic training, which is quite hard technically to solve when you’re talking about a whole bunch of ‘beeps and squeaks’.

“For example if we’re just flying around in our sim we can see what happens to our jet and you know if we’ve programmed it correctly what happens to a simulated threat. But we don’t necessarily know what happens to the blue [friendly] forces when that happens, if we’ve got some interference happening with our own communications or our own radars that might be in ships or on the ground or in the air.”

It’s clear the Growler’s arrival in Australia is a significant milestone, one that is the culmination of a lot of hard work. But it is equally clear that now the jet is here and the hard work has been done, the hard work in fact has just begun.

“It’s all good and well having the weapon but where are you going to use it, when and why? That’s the bit that Australia is new at … we’ve got to do collective training to bring up a whole bunch of people through the command and control system to make sure we’re using these things well,” notes GPCAPT Churchill.

“My analogy is, with the electrons we’ve got to deconflict them in the exact same way as we do for air traffic control for aircraft coming in to land at an airport; they don’t all land on the same thing at the same time. So we’ve got to have that same kind of electromagnetic spectrum battle management capability as we do for airspace battle management.”

As for the aircraft itself, the Growler in RAAF service can expect to be subject to ongoing capability upgrades.

Australia already is adding some unique capability enhancements to its Growlers, as RAAF aircraft will be able to carry the infrared-guided AIM-9X air-to-air missile (the USN originally only integrated the AIM-120 on its jets) and the AT-FLIR targetting pod, which will allow the visual ID confirmation of emitting targets and threats such as radar sites or ships.

Then longer term, Defence’s Integrated Investment Program document, released as part of the 2016 Defence White Paper in February that year, allocated a nominal $5-6 billion for Growler upgrades over the next decade, foremost of which is expected to be the Raytheon-developed Next Generation Jammer, which will replace the aircraft’s mid-band ALQ-99 jammer pods (USN IOC for the new jammer is planned for 2021).

“Recently Australia has finally come to agreement with the United States government on what the particulars are going to be on influencing for co-development on… Next Generation Jammer,” Northrop Grumman’s XXX told Australian media in January. (Between making the Hornet/Growler airframe at its El Segundo, California plant and the Growler’s ALQ-218 electronic warfare sensor package, “Northrop Grumman actually makes more of the plane than Boeing does,” says XXX.)

“Raytheon has won the mid band frequency range [jammer] and then the next up for competition is the lower frequency range [jammer].”

Australia, like the US Navy and Air Force is very interested in low-range jamming capabilities, XXX revealed. (Russia and China are known to be developed advanced UHF and VHF band low frequency radars able to detect and track otherwise stealthy tactical jets like the F-22 and F-35.)

“Electronic attack becomes very crucial when dealing with the lower frequency range, so there’s a very keen interest, as the Australians would say, in the lower frequency area,” says XXX.

Another capability enhancement that seems likely to fly on the Growler are conformal fuel tanks. Boeing flew a mockup of its conformal fuel tank design on an F/A-18F demonstrator aircraft as part of its Advanced Super Hornet initiative in 2013. The new tanks, which would be built by Northrop Grumman, promise to increase the Growler’s range and endurance by reducing drag compared to carrying traditional underwing external fuel tanks.

“You can download the twin inboard 480 gallon gas tanks and carry half the amount of gas [in the CFTs] and come up with a 600lb saving on your back,” notes XXX.

Another benefit of the conformal tanks of interest to Australia, says xxx, is ‘field of regard’. “With the big [underwing] tanks the Next Gen Jammer has some blockages that you’d free up.”

Likewise, the reduction in drag promised by the conformal tanks means the Growler could fly higher improving their ‘alignment’ – “if I’m protecting something that is flying at 30,000ft I have to be flying higher than that because of the slant range of something that is targeting him from [the ground].

But Australia is also considering operating the Growler with both the underwing and conformal fuel tanks “because of the distances you have”.

For now a RAAF Growler with endurance-extending conformal tanks and fitted with the Next Generation jammer remains off in the future.

But in the here and now the EA-18G already promises to be a revolutionary force level electronic attack capability.

“For me, the next big effect will be Growler,” says the Chief of Air Force. “That will be the one [capability] that changes us the most.”