The EA-18G is an electronic warfare aircraft manufactured by Boeing, primarily used for electronic jamming.
Based on the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter platform, it is equipped with various electronic warfare systems that can suppress enemy reconnaissance and communication signals in all frequency bands and from all directions at high power. It can also launch anti-radar missiles and launch precision attacks on ship-based radars, making it a core combat force in the US Air-Sea Battle strategy.
Production of the Growler began 20 years ago, and since 2021 the U.S. military has been spending billions of yen to upgrade its equipment to adapt to future warfare.
But as the researchers showed, that doesn’t mean it’s invincible.
“The cognitive intelligent radar has features such as active environment sensing, arbitrary transmit and receive design, intelligent processing and resource scheduling. It can effectively counter the complex and fluctuating electromagnetic interference of the EA-18G,” wrote the project team led by Professor Liu Shangfu, a radar expert at the Naval Petty Officer Academy in Bengbu city, southeast China’s Anhui Province.
05:28
Should China be concerned about Japan and the Philippines’ latest security treaty?
Should China be concerned about Japan and the Philippines’ latest security treaty?
“System detection is not simply a stacking of multiple detection sensors or a loosely connected network, but rather making comprehensive use of the performance characteristics of different sensors based on actual situations, rationally allocating and scheduling detection resources from a tactical perspective, and enhancing the information control capability of the platform,” Liu’s team wrote.
By sharing information, the ships could build a vast “kill web,” empowering them to “counter the EA-18G flexibly, actively, rapidly, and intelligently, and achieve the transformation from ‘single-resource confrontation’ to ‘systematic detection-resource confrontation,'” Liu and his colleagues wrote.
China’s official report on the Nanchang confirmed the change in tactics: The ship broke traditional formation and advanced 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers) to reportedly block a U.S. carrier task force from advancing toward a Chinese training ground.
The U.S. military responded by sending in carrier-based aircraft. Footage released by China showed the EA-18Gs employing a combat mode known as “accompanying jamming,” possibly forming a formation with other fighter jets to jam noise or to blind the Nanchang by emitting powerful signals of densely packed false targets.
However, the Nanchang’s radar systems continued to function normally and continued to track the US fleet’s primary targets.
The Nanchang’s commander told state media that U.S. aircraft and ships retreated immediately after opening the protective cover on the vertical launch system.
At first the Americans had the upper hand, but that quickly changed.
According to the 2022 Congressional National Defense Strategy Commission, the United States is “losing its advantage in electronic warfare, hindering the nation’s ability to conduct military operations against capable adversaries.”
