Its waste of time, when I asked about LBJ for SEAD/DEAD, he suddenly shifted the whole argument to AEW&CS and Standoff jamming and Cruise missile. Like US use Tomahawk and JASSM for SEAD/DEAD mission. Furthur, Goodluck doing standoff jamming of EL/M-2084 type radars.
In a way it really is.
Dedicated electronic warfare has lost relevance in the US, given the ability of enemy IADS to be targeted by a kinetic attack at the same ranges at which electronic attack is possible. Previously, there was no way to target enemy IADS at long distances and this required strong action trying to neutralize, even temporarily, the enemy's ability to detect, track and engage the attacking force so that it could reach the weapons' launch distance. . Today, an F-15EX or even an F-16 can locate and attack IADS (including launchers, radars, command centers, etc.) at the same distance as an EA-18G attacks them electronically. Likewise, an F-35 can get closer and attack you at a much shorter distance. Synthetic aperture radar, GPS-guided weapons and terminal seeker missiles against ground targets, and ATA (automatic target acquisition) capabilities make the anti-aircraft system extremely vulnerable today. A game-changing weapon in the “attack aircraft versus IADS” fight is the AARGM-ER missile. Furthermore, the US is very attentive to what happens in current conflicts, and is certainly moving towards using drones to complement the SEAD task. The beginning of a change in the way manned drone aviation works is a current reality.
In short, these 5 squadrons(EW) are not useful to the US Navy, they do not work together with naval units, they only support local or allied units. The US Navy does not want to pay for something that it probably believes should be the role of the USAF, as the USAF operates a squadron of Growlers with the USN, the 390 ECS and the unit's planes are from the US Navy, but they are used together. for USAF personnel to gain on-the-job experience. But I seriously doubt they'll turn it off. It is an easier task to increase capabilities for the US Navy than for the JCS to lose that capability until they eventually have viable replacements planned. The proposal to cut five squadrons of E/A-18G Growlers and send these aircraft to AMARG I believe should not go ahead, especially considering the missions that these platforms perform. The E/A-18G is of great importance not only for the USA, but also within NATO because there is a lack of aircraft with similar capabilities within the organization, which makes me think further. Big countries like the idea of deployed drones and this could happen one day, but at the moment there is nothing available with such capabilities and so I hope that the Boeing platform will be maintained even without the five planned squadrons, but keeping the aircraft in operation.
The USAF recently incorporated the EPAWSS system into the F-15EX, which has “some” electronic attack capability, but is hardly a replacement platform in the dedicated EW strike capability 1 for one of the EF111. It also adopts the MALD-J missile capable of long-range jamming. And the various AESA radars available on USAF fighters provide some jamming capability in the higher bands. It is worth noting that even with the current GaA AESA radar, the F-15EX has the longest-range radar ever mounted on a fighter, which combined with the EPAWSS electronic defense suite it already offers a highly positive RCS versus radar range ratio that probably makes it superior to all 4/4.5 generation fighters with RCS less than 1 m². If he loses in this relationship it will probably only be for the 5th generation.
Still with the USAF they have the EC-130H Compass Call as a dedicated EA mission so far but they are already being retired from service and a variant of the Gulfstream G550(EC-37B) business jet is being developed to take on this role, next month Last year they released images of this new copy. The superior lift capacity and reliability of the EC-37B means that just 10 EC-37B aircraft provide EW capability equivalent to the original fleet of 14 high-demand EC-130H aircraft.
A SEAD attack would include swarms of MALD-J decoy/jamming missiles, electronic attack aircraft (EC-37B), supersonic anti-radar missiles launched below the radar horizon, stand-off stealth munitions (JSOW, SDB, Storm Breaker... . ), stealth cruise missiles (JASSM, CALCM, JASSM-ER), rapid response munitions against tactical targets (AARGM-ER), jamming pods (NGJ), among others.
If we look broadly, US-dedicated EW multiplatforms are losing relevance, just as aircraft SEAD capabilities are shifting considerably to legacy multirole aircraft systems.