Navy’s Peculiar Plan To Retire EA-18 Growlers Is Up In The Air

An Air Force-Navy team-up could save 25 Growlers from the boneyard as changes in the nature of airborne electronic attack accelerate.

Members of the U.S. Senate are looking to not only block the U.S. Navy from sending dozens of EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft into storage, but are also proposing that the service join together with the U.S. Air Force to form a new land-based aerial electronic warfare force. In its 2023 Fiscal Year budget request, the Navy had proposed shutting down all five of its non-carrier-based active component expeditionary electronic attack squadrons and sending the 25 jets currently assigned to those units to the boneyard in Tucson, Arizona for long-term storage.

The Senate Armed Services Committee advanced a version of the annual defense policy bill, or National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for the 2023 Fiscal year containing the EA-18G-related provisions, among other things, on June 16, 2022. This draft legislation first needs to be brought in line with a similar bill now being put together in the House of Representatives, and then passed by both chambers, before it could be signed into law, a process that often takes months.