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The Great Growler Gallery

FlyinSpy said:
Amen, brother. This thing has so much untapped potential it's scary. Given the bagful of SA the backseat (and the front seat, for that matter...) can give you, I can see the G being the quarterback of the whole strike package. I thnk the CAGs of the near future will want to fly nothing else.

As they say in the G program office: "Two proven systems, plus a whole lotta other crap!"
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I wouldn't go that far. Just wait until the E-2D comes along.
 
True. If it can do even half of what N-G is promising, the Delta will be tits. As tits as the Hummer can be, anyway. For starters, it'll have a good radar for the first time since...well, ever. The HE2K has great scopes and computer (and CEC is King Kong when it works) but same ol' shitty APS-145. Getting the front end out of the steam gauge era and giving the CP a scope will be a big game-changer, too, and the grumbling from the pilots about "doing that double-anchor window-licker bullshit" is amusing.

That being said...no CAG from now on is ever going to want to lead a strike in anything but a Rhino. Preferably the Nuts bird with their name on it. How the hell can they write themselves up for a Silver Star for "leading from 100 miles to the rear, On Station"?

CAG riding with the Hawkeye boys is essentially a pity-fuck. Make the fat kids feel loved for a while.
 
Uncle Fester said:
True. If it can do even half of what N-G is promising, the Delta will be tits. As tits as the Hummer can be, anyway. For starters, it'll have a good radar for the first time since...well, ever. The HE2K has great scopes and computer (and CEC is King Kong when it works) but same ol' shitty APS-145. Getting the front end out of the steam gauge era and giving the CP a scope will be a big game-changer, too, and the grumbling from the pilots about "doing that double-anchor window-licker bullshit" is amusing.

That being said...no CAG from now on is ever going to want to lead a strike in anything but a Rhino. Preferably the Nuts bird with their name on it. How the hell can they write themselves up for a Silver Star for "leading from 100 miles to the rear, On Station"?

CAG riding with the Hawkeye boys is essentially a pity-fuck. Make the fat kids feel loved for a while.
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First, my hat is off to Uncle Fester. I nearly spit my coffee out laughing. Great response +1

Second, I find some of the comments in this thread bringing me back to the early 80's when the A-7 and F-4 were about to be replaced with the Hornet. The Corsair drivers bitched about the Hornet not having enough gas and couldn't carry as many bombs. The Phantom crews said the workload is too high for a single seat plane. The problem was these aviators (me included) viewed their new aircraft from the perspective of the one they were currently flying.

The Growler is much more than just a faster, more agile Prowler. The addition of AESA, new targeting systems, electronic weapons systems, maintenance/support commonality and ability to significantly add to the warfare commander's SA make the plane a great fit.

In the early 90's I was part of the initial requirements team that worked with Boeing on the G and am still involved with sub system contract work. I'm sure the first fleet aircraft will be a work in progress. Because we are not on the SIPRNET I'll just finish with this...I believe it incredibly short-sighted of some to believe limitations that are on the Prowler, aircraft or pod, will automatically transfer to the Growler. As one of the other posters stated, "think out of the box."
 
VFAQ and Growler Selection

Just talked to our XO today (former VAQ guy) about the future in Growlers/Shockers...what have you...and he mentioned VFAQ squadrons. Until today, I thought all EA's were going to be assigned VAQ. Is this news or am I just late on the bandwagon? Any gouge on where these squadrons will be, how many there will be, and really anything about this? Also, any gouge on whether the selection down the road will be just VAQ or Prowlers vs. Growlers?
 
Hell, think about it. If things keep going the way they have, we'll eventually have 1 squadron on each of our CV's. Each squadron will have 75 fixed-wing a/c and will be known as VFAQWR-1(etc.). The squadron will perform fighter, attack, elint/strike support, early-warning/air control and transport missions. It will use the venerable Super Hornet aircraft which could (in my worst nightmare) become the last carrier fixed-wing aircraft the Navy ever buys. Hell, why not? We've pissed away 90% of our carrier a/c budget on Hornets for the last 25 or so years. This post is sorta TIC, but then again sorta not.
 
Fog said:
Hell, think about it. If things keep going the way they have, we'll eventually have 1 squadron on each of our CV's. Each squadron will have 75 fixed-wing a/c and will be known as VFAQWR-1(etc.). The squadron will perform fighter, attack, elint/strike support, early-warning/air control and transport missions. It will use the venerable Super Hornet aircraft which could (in my worst nightmare) become the last carrier fixed-wing aircraft the Navy ever buys. Hell, why not? We've pissed away 90% of our carrier a/c budget on Hornets for the last 25 or so years. This post is sorta TIC, but then again sorta not.
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the .pdf file with the omni-role hornet variants (and their ubiquitous centerline tanks) comes to mind...
 
Single Seat said:
Where's the Superhornet with an E-2 dome on it, someone's got to have thought about it.
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They'll wrap an SLR-type band around the F-18 for the VAW mission. The airframe will have 3 or 4 tandem cockpits until they phase-out NFO's forever and replace them with R2D2. Don't laugh, you single-anchor dudes, you're next on the phase-out list.
 
Apparently, there was talk at some level about whether to fold the VAQ mission into the VFA squadrons and issue them each a few Growlers. I have no idea if this made it out of VFA ready rooms, but it strikes me as an absolutely horrible idea.

Which is probably why it's not happening. VAQ squadrons will soon start to turn in their Prowlers and transition, as a unit, to the G. If you are in one of those squadrons and haven't managed to convice your skipper that you couldn't hack the new airframe and smaller crew (there are rumors of that happening to a few guys), you will transition then. Latest RUMINT at 129 has a SMALL number of Cat Is showing up sometime in the middle of this fiscal year. There will still be Prowler accessions, so I would imagine it'll be a dogfight on the Pilot and ECMO sides to get Gs.
 
nittany03 said:
Apparently, there was talk at some level about whether to fold the VAQ mission into the VFA squadrons and issue them each a few Growlers. I have no idea if this made it out of VFA ready rooms, but it strikes me as an absolutely horrible idea.
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It's hard enough to balance air-to-air and air-to-ground, let alone the jamming mission. F-that.
 
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