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Key Points and Summary: The US Navy’s EA-18G Growler proves that a 1980s-era aircraft can still dominate the skies with modern upgrades. While celebrated for its electronic warfare (EW) and “jamming” prowess, the Growler also demonstrated its “kinetic” versatility by destroying Houthi assets with AIM-9X missiles.

-Like other F/A-18 variants, it benefits from a Service Life Extension Program and the addition of cutting-edge technologies such as the Next-Gen Jammer.

-This advanced EW pod not only jammed multiple frequencies but also leveraged AI-driven signal processing to detect and target drone swarms. As the Growler advances, it remains a formidable force against emerging threats.

EA-18G Growler: The Navy’s Electronic Warfare Giant Still Thriving

The US Navy EA-18G Growler Electronic Warfare platform offers many elements: shooting enemy drones straight out of the air, finding and “jamming” multiple enemy missiles simultaneously, or simply blinding an enemy radar from any ability to detect incoming attacks. 

The aircraft may be from the 80s, yet today’s Growler is an almost entirely different aircraft than early versions of the platform, as it has been massively upgraded with new weapons, avionics, sensors, and “jamming” technology. 

While the electronic warfare (EW) aircraft is, of course, widely known and celebrated for its “jamming” and “electronic intercept” capability, the platform recently used its standard “kinetic” ability to track and destroy Houthi drones from the air, according to a senior US Navy commander. 

Rear Adm. Javon Hakimsadeh – Commanding Officer of Carrier Strike Group 2, recently told me that, sure enough, an EA-18G Growler used its AIM-9X air-to-air missile to “shoot down” Houthi drones. 

EA-18G Growler. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

While not surprising, this offers an interesting twist related to the aircraft’s versatility, as it can perform standard or typical F/A-18 functions.  Hakimsadeh, affectionately known as “Hak” by his fellow sailors, explained that carrier-launched aircraft were successful with air-to-air kills of Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea. 

EA-18G Growler Life Span

The aircraft has also been sustained and advanced through the US Navy’s “fleet-wide”  Service Life Extension Program (SLEP), a service effort to extend all F-18 flight hours from 6,000 to 8,000 or even 10,000. This SLEP reinforced the aircraft’s body, added new sensors and weapons, completely modernized computing and avionics, and new EW-capable targeting systems. This suggests that, in a manner similar to other F/A-18s, the 1980s-era Growler still flies with operational relevance today. 

EW Powerhouse 

The most pressing operational elements of the EA-18G Growler are naturally related to its EW capacity, much of which is likely not available publicly for security reasons. Arguably, the largest and most significant element of the Navy’s evolving EA-18G Growler relates to the addition of its high-tech, next-generation Next-Gen-Jammer (NGJ) system.  Newly developed software, hardware, and EW “jamming” systems, enabled by an entirely new generation of paradigm-changing technologies, have enabled a greater operational sphere for Growler.

EA-18G Growler

EA-18G Growler. Image Credit: Creative Commons.

The NGJ not only has longer ranges than the existing “pod” it is replacing, but it is also capable of simultaneously jamming multiple frequencies and signals. Navy data on the NGJ says the Growler can “degrade, disrupt or deny” enemy air defense and ground communications. 

EW For the Future

The NGJ is engineered to evolve through software adjustments to accommodate new threats as they emerge, and it would not be surprising if the NGJ also incorporated new generations of “signal” hardening. In this situation, the jamming pod is believed to be engineered with EW countermeasures such as “frequency hopping” or new methods of spectrum deconfliction.

For example, several new technologies can now discern, detect, and deconflict across a wide range of frequencies in the spectrum, often distinguishing hostile EW signatures from friendly ones.  

This ability to discriminate increasingly uses AI to bounce new information off a seemingly limitless database to identify and deconflict signals within the spectrum. This suggests that an NGJ-enabled EA-18G Growler is likely able to detect the signature from a group of hostile drones by intercepting the “IP protocol” of a software-programmable RF signal in the air to identify the nature of the enemy threat. 

Surging into the future, this means that NGJ-armed EA-18G Growlers are likely going to be increasingly capable of detecting, identifying, and “jamming” or “attacking” an entire swarm of drones depending upon the range, scope, and area of the signals it will emit. 

About the Author: Kris Osborn 

Kris Osborn is the Military Technology Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.