E/A-18G Growler
Posted on 03/16/2012 6:54:00 PM PDT by U-238
The U.S. Navy has received from Boeing the first aircraft under a multi-year procurement contract meant to cut purchase costs.
The aircraft delivered was an EA-18G Growler, which is based at U.S. Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington state.
The Boeing EA-18G Growler delivers full-spectrum airborne electronic attack capability with the targeting and self-defense capabilities derived from the F/A-18E/F Block II Super Hornet.
The United States was purchasing 58 of the aircraft under the multi-year contract as well as 66 F/A-18E/Fs. It modified the 2010 contract, however, to acquire 24 more F/A-18s.
Through the Multiple-year Procurement III contract, the Navy expects to save more than $605 million in the procurement of the aircraft.
"This program continues to successfully draw on efficiencies from across Boeing to reduce cost, while increasing capability for the men and women who serve this nation around the globe," said Mike Gibbons, Boeing F/A-18 and EA-18 Programs vice president.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
F/A 18s and F-16s continue to dominate their price/performance sectors.
The F-35 flying anvils continue to push themselves out of the envelope. The same politics trying to kill the superior F-22 is keeping that POS alive.
But I never cared for the “Growler” moniker. I would have preferred something cooler like “Deathbow” or “ZapYoAss.”
But that is just me...
Or maybe ‘Can-O-Whoop-Ass’ because it still sits on a shelf.
Ooops, sorry. I was referring to the F-35.
E/A-18G Growler
Makes sense to me.
I gotta say...I loved the EA6B Prowler. Loved the plane, loved the name.
When I was a kid living in the Philippines, my did brought me home a painted wood scale model of a Intruder on a pedestal.
I loved the shape of that plane, it seemed, it LOOKED fast to me, with that distinctive top/bottom silhouette.
When I saw a Prowler for the first time with that gold-tinted canopy, no bombs but all those pods, it looked like a hot rod to me.
Funny, one time I nearly had my head taken off by a Prowler. My first tour on the JFK, I went into the catwalk abreast the waist catapult to watch some launches. The first one they taxied to the cat was a Prowler. I watched them hook it up.
This was my first cruise, and my first time to watch any kind of flight deck ops from the waist cat. When they launched the plane, everyone put their head down but me, I was so interested by this perspective with the wing right over your head.
To the Air Boss, I must have looked like a prairie dog in that waist cat with my bolt upright head and torso, everyone else slumped over, heads down.
I picked the worst plane to do it on.
The A-6 (and EA6B) exhaust pattern is pretty broad rather than directly straight back, it has a, er...”lateral” component, to put it mildly.
As the plane moved forward, it took that exhaust pattern forward until my fool head was right in it.
You know those helmets flight deck crews wear? My nose was LITERALLY in my ear protector. My my chin strap pretty snug, it DID nearly rip my head off!
Navy receives Mauler aircraft
The Growler doesn’t appear to have gold plating on the canopy.. Hmmm..
How much time have you logged in a Lightning II or any tactical fighter for that matter?
Well let that be a lesson to you. :)
I saw a pair of Prowlers flying around the peaks here in Idaho last summer. The closest base I could find was out in WA state. I enjoyed the show.
>>How much time have you logged in a Lightning II or any tactical fighter for that matter?<<
I am saving up to buy one. In the meantime, one needs only a spreadsheet, not a HUD to figure this one out.
>>Ooops, sorry. I was referring to the F-35.<<
We need only remember the truism: “A camel is a mouse built to government specifications...”
And for those of you who don’t understand my position, let me be clear. I undersand the F/A 18, F-16 and F-15 are 30+ year old airframe designs (clearly back when they really had a handle on physics and engineering).
I applauded the idea of the F-35 as a replacement and unifying strategic platform: a low-cost replacement with a homogeneous supporting infrastructure, much as served Southwest airlines so well. The overall idea: The F-22 picks up for the F-15 for Superiority/Mastery. The F-35 picks up for MRF from the F-16 and F/A-18 (implied, of course, are all the variants).
We got neither. As near as I can tell, the F-22 was “too beautiful to live.” The F-35 was so loaded up with political mission creep (more weight, more ordinance, more picking up the F-22’s now abandoned role), that it became prohibitively expensive and not all that great from a performance perspective.
In the meantime, the folks cranking out the still low cost F-16s and F/A 18s have modified them pretty nicely and fitted them with nifty avionics to rival the bloated F-35.
The bottom line is that physics is the driver and we hit the sweet spot back in the 70s. The airframes designed back then can’t really be bested, just matched (for the price point). And let’s face facts — we don’t dogfight anymore (that is why they retired the fabulous F-14). It is all BVR: The AWACS and satellite GPS are more crucial than turn radius.
The F-22 and F-35 were great ideas and the right ideas. Then the bureaucrats messed it all up. Permanently.
Just to be clear.
It's what they do!
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I hope they know they are not snow bunny spotting aircraft in Italy anymore.
I live directly under the flight path of these planes on Fidalgo Island. At night. and the worse the weather, the better, they will take off from Whidbey and fly a big circle over Anacortes and back to base and do it from dinner time till midnight. I got used to it years ago but they sure are loud.
You cannot get rid of aircraft watchers. Unless the base expands the “off limits” areas.
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