Copyright 2002 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.  
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
June 18, 2002 Tuesday Five Star Lift Edition
SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. C1

LENGTH: 863 words

HEADLINE: RADAR-JAMMING MODERNIZATION IS BIG FOR BOEING;
DECISION IS COMPLICATED BY THE THREE SERVICES PUSHING THEIR PROPOSALS

BYLINE: Philip Dine Of The Post-Dispatch

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:
Senior Pentagon officials are quietly considering how to modernize the military's radar-jamming capability, which is a key to neutralizing enemy air-defense systems in the early days of a battle.

America's EA-6B Prowler planes have been relied on to allow U.S. fighters free use of the skies in hostilities -- essential in modern warfare. But the planes are several decades old and showing their age.

"Their maintenance costs are astronomical, their wings are cracking, their engines are failing. It's an old airframe that's been overused," said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, a military think tank in Virginia.

The decision on replacing the planes could be a huge one for Boeing Co., which makes the plane the Navy wants to modify by adding radar-jamming capacity.

"This is one of the biggest decisions coming out of the Department of Defense this summer, and for Boeing, St. Louis, it is very big," said a congressional military source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But the process of replacing the planes has become embroiled in differences among the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.

The three services have spent much of this year trying to devise a common approach to the problem, after finishing a two-year study of the matter in December.

Two weeks ago, they presented a plan involving divergent components for each service to Pentagon acquisitions chief Edward "Pete" Aldridge. He and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are expected to make a decision in the next couple of months, if not sooner.

The major part of the plan is Boeing's St. Louis-built F/A-18 Super Hornet, sources say, with the plane - to be known as the E/A-18 - modified to include jamming capabilities in a deal valued at $7 billion to $9 billion for about 90 to 125 planes.

Pat Frost, Boeing's spokeswoman for the program, said in St. Louis: "That's a good number of airplanes and it would be a very, very good piece of business for us. We'd be very excited about it."

The services have been unable to come up with a plan to replace the EA-6B with a single platform, but in recent months have put aside their opposition to one another's aspirations.

The Navy, which is chiefly responsible for jamming activities, wants the Boeing E/A-18, informally dubbed the Growler. This would use an established air-frame and would be efficient, because Navy carriers already fly the Super Hornet. That would mean savings in parts, servicing and personnel. And the E/A-18 could be ready within three years, and in full squadron use by 2008.

The Marines hope to eventually adapt the Joint Strike Fighter as their jamming aircraft. They're concerned, sources say, that if they get involved with the Super Hornet, it would jeopardize their chances of getting money to modify the strike fighter when that plane is ready years down the road. Instead, the Marines want to muddle through with their current EA-6Bs as long as they can and then cherry-pick the best of those discarded by the Navy as it switches to Super Hornet jammers.

The Air Force isn't as opposed to modifying the Super Hornet, but doesn't want to spend its own money doing so. Rather, it proposes something quite different for itself - looking into using the B-52 bomber in two ways: to launch miniature decoys and to serve as a platform for low-frequency jamming equipment.

Sources say unmanned aerial vehicles also are part of the Air Force's plan, that the use of F-22s has been discussed as well, and that the Air Force hopes eventually to have an all-stealth fleet not detectable by enemy radar, making jamming irrelevant.

Critics cite problems of higher budgets and reduced coordination because of the different approaches, as well as the need for technological advances to make the B-52 and Joint Strike Fighter usable as jammers.

"The natural inclination of each service is to do what they want, which is to fly their own airplane," said a congressional staff member involved with military planning, speaking on condition of anonymity. "This is a 180-degree reversal of the decision made in the mid-1990s to consolidate into one platform, the EA-6B Prowler. It's a lack of oversight over the three services."

Some sources say Aldridge was disappointed that the services didn't present him with a more cohesive plan. Defense Department officials decline to comment.

But a military analyst said it's reasonable to let the services fill their needs as they wish, especially because the Air Force and Marines have agreed not to oppose Navy plans to make the Super Hornet the primary electronic warfare plane.

Rep. Todd Akin, Town and Country, the primary congressional force behind the transformation of the Super Hornet into a jamming aircraft, has added money to the defense budget for preliminary engineering to speed up replacement of the EA-6B.

Akin said that although the three services involved are seeking different planes, they have agreed to merge their goals into one plan with several elements - as opposed to competing plans. That clears the way for the modification of the Super Hornet to serve as the nation's primary jamming platform, he said.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO; MCDONNELL DOUGLAS Color Photo - The proposed Growler would be built on the airframe of Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet, above.

LOAD-DATE: June 18, 2002