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Navy takes delivery of first Growler

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — The first production EA-18G Growler, the electronics warfare version of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, landed here Tuesday after rolling off the assembly line in St. Louis the day before.

The Growler is the replacement for the EA-6B Prowler, which is currently in use.

The aircraft will remain at Pax River for operational and developmental testing until May 2008, when it’s scheduled to be delivered to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash.

The new jet is “a quantum leap in airborne electronic attack capability,” said Capt. Paul Overstreet, program manager for the Growler. He cited a laundry list of improvements over the Prowler aircraft that he flew, including the Growler’s AESA radar, improved communication, more firepower — there are 10 weapons stations as opposed to five on the Prowler — and it’s faster and more survivable.

Overstreet compared the delivery of the first Growler to the christening of a new class of ship. The Navy plans to buy 85 Growlers by 2013; the second plane will be delivered in December, and then production is scheduled to speed up. The planes are slated to first deploy with a carrier air wing in 2010.

Navy acquisition czar Delores Etter and Rear Adm. Kenneth Floyd, director of aviation and aircraft carrier plans, were at the ceremony at a Boeing plant in St. Louis at which the aircraft was unveiled.