The Air Force plans so as to add five EA-37B Compass Call electronic-attack aircraft to its arsenal in the approaching fiscal 12 months, because it swaps out the aging EC-130H fleet for a smaller, modern set of airborne jammers.
The service noted their arrival in budget documents released March 11. The primary of 10 EA-37Bs was delivered to the Air Force last 12 months for testing — two years later than anticipated — before heading to its eventual home at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. Delivery of the primary mission-ready jet is predicted sometime in 2024.
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It’s unclear to what extent the primary five aircraft can be utilized in testing or if they are going to enter regular operations as they arrive online. Air Combat Command, which manages the fleet, declined to offer more details concerning the jets.
Compass Call is designed to jam enemy signals, including communications, radar and navigations systems, and might suppress enemy air defenses by blocking the connection between weapons systems and command-and-control networks. The aircraft also carries hardware and software that give airmen the power to hack into wireless devices, defuse roadside bombs and more.
Its latest airframe — a Gulfstream G550 business jet outfitted with advanced electronic attack equipment by an L3Harris-BAE Systems team — can even give you the option to soar higher than 40,000 feet and fly at nearly 600 mph, nearly twice as high and as fast because the legacy EC-130H.
The forty third Electronic Combat Squadron at Davis-Monthan can be the primary to transition to the brand new Compass Call, which began flying within the Eighties. Because it prepares to switch old with latest, the squadron logged its final flight in an EC-130H on Feb. 15.
“Throughout its storied existence, the squadron’s adaptability and commitment to evolving military technologies shine through, having operated 11 different aircraft types across six continents,” forty third ECS Commander Lt. Col. Tray Wood said in an announcement. “The ultimate EC-130H flight marks the top of an era and signals the start of a brand new chapter with the forthcoming EA-37B transition.”
The forty first and forty second Electronic Combat Squadrons, also based at Davis-Monthan, are still flying the legacy platform. The forty first is the one remaining operational squadron flying the EC-130H; the forty second is a training squadron.
The brand new EA-37B, which was redesignated from EC-37B late last 12 months, comes because the Air Force looks to switch a lot of its decades-old aircraft with more-capable versions that will have a greater shot at surviving in future conflicts against advanced adversaries like China.
The service said in November it had retired nine of its 14 old Compass Calls up to now. Air Force budget documents show that the service plans to send another EC-130H to its aircraft “Boneyard” this 12 months. The budget also includes a further $15 million for operating and maintaining the Compass Call program, driven by fielding the brand new aircraft and storing the retiring planes.
A mainstay in U.S. Central Command through the war on terror, the EC-130H carries a 13-person crew, including two pilots, a navigator, a flight engineer, a mission crew commander and supervisor, a signals analyst and multiple cryptologic language analysts. The Air Force contends that though its latest Compass Call airframe is smaller, advances in equipment will allow it to consolidate jobs onboard and cut the crew to nine members.
The forty first Electronic Combat Squadron spent 20 years overseas with the Compass Call, becoming the longest repeatedly deployed Air Force unit in Afghanistan at nearly 14,800 sorties over 90,000 flying hours before returning home in 2021.
Courtney Mabeus-Brown is the senior reporter at Air Force Times. She is an award-winning journalist who previously covered the military for Navy Times and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., where she first set foot on an aircraft carrier. Her work has also appeared in The Latest York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy and more.