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Continued employment of EA-6b or further development and investment in

EA-18G?

 

EA-6B should be able to meet USN SEAD requirements through 2017 and USMC through 2025 provided sufficient ICAP III electronic suites.

IMHO, no question, you have to go with the EA-18G.

 

ICAP III is a significant leap ahead in electronic warfare capability, but the Prowler platform is ageing fast, and has other limitations that the Growler will address, like better DEAD (Destruction of Enemy Air Defence) capability (rather than just SEAD), stealthiness, air to air self-defence, and commonality advantages with the F/A-18E/F.

 

Fatigue life with the Prowler is at quote, "unacceptable" levels, and I recall that in late 2003 a significant portion of the EA-6B fleet was grounded due to wear in the wing centre section. They started replacing these sections (where the wing folds to permit efficient storage on the carrier) but fatigue is also apparently bad in the outer wing panels. These birds are being worked hard in the latter stages of their operational life, which is not good.

 

Sometimes I wonder if the GAO is the same crowd who comes up with the "Top Ten" list on Letterman. Their material is obviously researched, and usually amusing, but you gotta wonder just how much time they're spending thinking about these things.

 

I should add that, IMHO, a better question for the GAO (and others) to be considering in the context of EW platforms is what the USAF is going to do now that it has cancelled the B-52 SOJ project. There's a real vacuum there waiting to be filled.