Navy aircraft managers refine requirements in post-Iraq era

Sea Power,  Jun 2003  by Burgess, Richard R

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Northrop Grumman expects to prepare two Advanced Hawkeyes for the aircraft's flight-test program in 2006 or 2007. The company expects to build 75 Advanced Hawkeyes, beginning with four in FY 2008, followed by four more in FY 2009, five in FY 2010, six in FY 2011, and seven in FY 2012. The production numbers in the outyears of the program have not yet been released.

In a briefing at the Navy League's 2003 Sea-Air-Space Exposition in Washington, D.C., Capt. Robert Labelle, the Navy's E-2C program manager, praised the Hawkeye's versatile performance over Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and over Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. During the Enduring Freedom operations, he said, E-2Cs performed command and control, tanker control, and strike ingress/egress control missions over Afghanistan. Airborne Early Warning Squadron 112 (VAW-112)-the first to deploy for a combat operation with Group II E-2Cs equipped with the Mission Computer Upgrade and the Advanced Control Indicator Set-"did a great job," Labelle said.

Similar missions were carried out by the E-2C squadrons embarked on the six Navy carriers deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. VAW-117, currently deployed in the Persian Gulf on board USS Nimitz, is equipped with the USG-3 system as a node for the Cooperative Engagement Capability, a force-wide sensor-to-shooter data network that enables a weapons platform to use the track data generated by sensors on other platforms to launch attacks against enemy targets.

Among the lessons learned over Afghanistan and Iraq, Labelle said, are the need for extended on-station time (made possible, perhaps, by an in-flight refueling capability); a more coherent tactical picture with better multisource integration; improved communications reliability and more satellite communication channels; and an automated air tasking order that could be provided to the aircraft's tactical-display systems.

Labelle said that the Navy's goal is to bring the Advanced Hawkeye to full operational capability by FY 2012. The Navy hopes to win Department of Defense and congressional approval for multiyear procurement of the Advanced Hawkeye, he also said.

EA-6B ICAP III

The operational evaluation of the Improved Capability III (ICAP III) version of the Navy's EA-6B Prowler electronic attack aircraft is scheduled for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2003, when the service plans to equip one fleet electronic attack squadron with the new Prowler. Northrop Grumman officials said the company expects to modify three lots of aircraft-10 to 12 EA-6Bs per lot-to the new configuration in fiscal years 2005 through 2007.

Two EA-6B ICAP III aircraft have been going through tests at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., and at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif.; those tests included an operational assessment period that was completed on 1 February 2003. The Naval Air Systems Command was expected to issue a report on the operational assessment by the end of May 2003. The technical evaluation of the ICAP III also was being carried out in May. A decision to begin low-rate initial production is expected by the end of June 2003.