The EA-6B Prowler is one unique aircraft. Its ability to support strike aircraft is unparalleled, and the “Cougars” of Electronic Air Squadron (VAQ) 139 prove that every day during Operation Iraqi Freedom. “The Prowlers support strikers and other aircraft against surface-to-air missiles and other air defense threats,” said Electronic Countermeasures Officer (ECMO) Lt. Shannon Callahan.

This umbrella of protection is accomplished through electronic jamming and High Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARM). Callahan explained that the aircraft’s electronic jamming pods are its “bread and butter” and what makes them different from any other.

“With the pods, we can direct energy into enemy target radars and blind them," she said. "It's the only aircraft of its type in the world. We [the United States] have never exported the technology. We’re the only ones who have it.”

Senior Chief Aviation Structural Mechanic Ray Hamilton added that the technology has never been exported for security reasons. “If we export it, other countries will know how to combat our jamming tactics,” he said.

What it doesn’t blind, the Prowler otherwise suppresses via the formidable HARM missiles it also carries. “When a plane pinpoints a radar that’s transmitting, they fire the missile, the missile locks on to the radar site, and then blows the radar site up,” said Hamilton. Callahan said VAQ-139 has launched missiles nearly every day in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The four-man aircraft is manned by one pilot and three ECMOs. Although there are naval flight officers in many types of aircraft, ECMOs are only found in the Prowler.

“You have the pilot, who has stick and throttle in the cockpit, and ECMO 1 sits next to him," Callahan said. "He not only has co-pilot skills including navigation and communications, but ECMO 1 may also act as a mission commander."

“ECMO 1 may also do targeting with the HARM, as well as Comms EA [Communications Electronic Attack],” she added. “In the back seat, you have the people who are running the jammers, that’s ECMOs 2 and 3."

ECMOs 2 and 3 also do electronic surveillance and can do HARM targeting, as well, according to Callahan. All the electronics equipment and personnel inside the plane are protected from the radiation produced by the jammers by a special gold filament on both the canopies, which is yet another feature unique to the Prowler. When strike aircraft shifted from flying patrols in the no-fly zone to targeting Baghdad, as well as providing close-air support to coalition ground troops, the importance of the Prowlers’ role intensified as American lives were now literally on the line.

“That was a big task, to protect the strikers when they went into Baghdad, because it was so heavily protected,” said Callahan. “To send a strike into Baghdad was a very dangerous thing, and that’s why you had to have a Prowler there." With its radar-jamming capabilities and HARM missiles, the unique one-two punch that the Prowler packs has put it in high demand.

“Our jamming was required every day in Iraq for every strike mission. The Prowlers are a ‘high-demand, low-density’ asset, so we were booked,” Callahan said. “We’ve been really successful, we’ve been getting good feedback, and the strikers have told us that we’ve been providing them very good coverage and protection.”

The EA-6B is an airframe that’s been around more than 30 years and is slated to be replaced by the EA-18G, tentatively nicknamed the "Growler,” starting in 2008 with full replacement by 2015.

“It’s cheaper to build the (F/A-18) Hornets than to rebuild the Prowler,” said Hamilton. For now though, the EA-6B Prowler continues to make a difference in the air and on the ground, in a way that only it can; prowling the skies to keep coalition pilots and our ground forces safe.

[Thanks to Airman Brian Biller, USS Abraham Lincoln  PA -- ed.]

FMI: www.news.navy.mil/local/cvn72