The Navy has a few 'Expeditionary' squadrons of Prowlers that support the USAF. They do not deploy to the boat but instead deploy to land bases, generally with the USAF but sometimes with the Marines. Before OIF the two deployment sites were Incirlick, Turkey and Prince Sultan Air Base (PSAB), Saudi Arabia. Nowadays they are a little closer to the action. When I was in one there were four USAF aircrew in the squadron, one pilot and three Navigators. The pilots were a mix of tactical types, usually F-15E and F-16 but with a few A-10 guys too. The Navs were generally tactical too, mainly F-15E and B-1 guys, but a few were from the RC-135 and EC-130. They were usually good guys and gals and gave the squadrons a pretty broad base of experience when it came to USAF ops. When I was leaving the USAF had stopped sending Pilots and had started sending WSO's straight out of VT-86.
There used to be four squadrons but now there are only three, one of them was retired after OIF because they figured they didn't have as much of a need for them anymore. Whoops. There was supposed to be a fifth squadron but it never got off the ground, the Navy figured out there weren't enough Prowlers to go around. The reserve squadron, VAQ-209, has been treated as a part-time expeditionary squadron, deploying quite often for about 2 months at a time to fill gaps. Boat squadrons often supplement the expeditionary squadrons in their deployed locations now too with dets.
The four Marine Prowler squadrons were not officially considered expeditionary but they were treated as such when it came to deployments. There is supposed to be a VMAQ squadron in Iwakuni but that was often filled by a VAQ squadron while the Marines played in the sandbox. Occasionally even a boat squadron would go there.
If they want to continue the expeditionary squadrons after Prowlers leave the service someone will have to cough up the money to buy more Growlers. Just an offer for Navy guys to ride in anything they have is a bit pathetic.
.....even 15 years (I don't remember when exactly it started happening -- I'm sure there are some Prowler bubbas on here who know)....
Mid-90's is when they stood up the expeditionary squadrons, so about 15 years.
That obviously never really happened. The AF hasn't had the opportunity to recapitalize any new jammers, so they're looking to keep riding the Navy's coat-tails.
Not really, the USAF has pretty much
chosen not to get a new jamming platform. Talking to the old EF-111 and F-4G Wild Weasel guys they all said they were always red-headed stepchildren in big blue. Anecdotal evidence should often be taken with a grain of salt but the USAF's decisions when it comes to that area back that up. It appears that the USAF thougth that stealth was the be-all, end-all after Desert Storm and rapidly got rid of their EA assets, right in time for Kosovo and the F-117 getting it's ass blown off. Since then the USAF has dithered and left EA at the bottom of the priority list, where it will stay until something else gets it's ass blown off. The perfect example of this is the F-16CJ's, in which a pod replaced a entire weapon system on a dedicated aircraft and couldn't do anywhere near what it replaced was able to do. They have gotten better but it is indicative of the Air Force's attitude to EA, an afterthought.
There were 2 USAF Captains there in 88 when I went through the RAG. One was with VAQ-130 and the other at the wing so it's been going on a long time for sure. IIRC at least one of them transferred to the Navy.
Those were PEP guys and not part of the whole expeditionary arrangement. My last CO in Prowlers did a PEP tour with EF-111's and flew in the Gulf War.
