E/A-18 Growler kills F-22

Posted on the DewLine blog today at Flight......

EA-1 got an F-22 kill in an exercise at Nellis recently. It was seen sitting on the ramp with an odd sticker on the side under the cockpit. When asked the pilot said it was an F-22 that was shot down with an AIM-120 shot. No word on any other details unfortunately. It'll be interesting to see if any other details come to light.

www.flightglobal.com...

Good find. If true I doubt we will get the real deal for a bit. On the other hand F-22 have been killed before but only after a dead flight regenerated in an advantageous position.

It is also possible that intense jamming allowed the Growler to remain undetected untill it could get in range.

Rumors are that the AIM-120 has the ability to target stealthy cruise missiles. Perhaps it can be used here as well.

We don't know the ROE's, parameters of the exercise etc... but other than that it is interesting. I find it hard to believe that this occurred under normal circumstances, even with it's (public) impressive electronic warfare capability the EA-18 should not be able to take on an F-22 in the air alone.

If nothing else, that's some pretty nice bragging rights. I wonder if they had to specially make that decal after the fact. Probably didn't have any set aside. Pretty neat article though, wish he was able to get some more information out of the pilot.

the growler jammed the raptor all the way into to visual range and poped it close in - and the raptor didn`t even know what happpened - all IMO ofc.

reply to post by Harlequin


Stealth does not extend to being able to see behind you even with the AESA radar.

That scenario would be very plausable. Esp. if the F-22 were riding high cap and the Growler was jamming.

Talk about giving the F-22 conformational AESA nodes all over that would give it a radar sphere for detection of hostiles.

reply to post by FredT


Highly doubt it, the ALR-94 (360 degree system) would pinpoint that Growler like a searchlight in the dark. Not to mention jamming should have no impact on the RCS of the F-22, as such that Growler would be blindly jamming, while the Raptor would at least know it's there. The fact that there is only one sticker on the bird which leads me to believe either ROE's played a role, or incredible luck combined with skill led to it.

yes Fred and thats the massive weakness of the raptor AESA - the fact it only points forwards - the side and rear mounted `nodes` are only on the drawing board as one of the upgrades - as is the steerable forward antenna - all of which the SU-35 actually has now , and the typhoon system along the same features of the russians is beign readied for fianl testing.

westy the AN/ALR-94 would be rather blinded by the growler - as thats the entire role of the growler in the first place.

great it knows theres jamming out there - but its 1/2 a screen of fuzzyness isn`t going to help the raptor


hmmmm


that or the growler can allready track the emissions from the AN/APG-77 allready.... as , well , no one knows the full capability of the latest EA-18G really is

Originally posted by Harlequin
westy the AN/ALR-94 would be rather blinded by the growler - as thats the entire role of the growler in the first place.

I don't think it's that simple, but given that we don't know what the Growler or AN/ALR-94(APG-77V1) is really capable of, it's just speculation.

One thing is for sure though, first the Super Hornet and now the Growler, those Navy guys are not taking the Raptor lying down!

i noticed the F22 sticker , but isnt these kill stickers only put there for real kill and not simulated/training kills ?

as for F22 against any fighter in WVR range with Gun and IR missile , i would say the chances of F22 surviving the dogfight vs modern fighter more like 50:50..