This is off the Williams Foundation from from a serving pilot-
I’m sitting here on a weather day in the Middle East reading Australian Aviation magazine’s publication of the Williams Foundation’s comment on EW in Offensive Air Operations.
What piqued my interest was the last paragraph in the AA article, stating the Foundation’s support for RAAF Growlers. It seemed an oversimplified comment that lacked appreciation of the RAAF’s actual capabilities.
I dug a little deeper and located the source document on the Foundation webpage, and found that the article makes no such assertion that “the Williams Foundation believes that this opportunity [for Growlers] should be taken”.
Rather it states that operations in contested airspace will rely on Allied support - a completely valid conclusion and one that represents no change from the status quo for as long as I’ve been a pilot.
As the Foundation comment itself states, “the USN has separated the two roles [Strike and EW], apparently because Growler crews are stretched maintaining skills in their primary EW role”. Fair comment. The RAAF simply does not possess the critical mass to support a dedicated Growler capability. Dedicated EW, as opposed to self-protection, is a niche capability in the same vein as CSAR that our “world’s best small air force” does not have the people/time/knowledge base to support.
From my experience, 82WG has its hands full exploiting the capability it currently has. While they will no doubt get there in the end, they are still years away from being a mature Strike/Fighter organisation. Adding a new capability that we have no experience in is not the answer. Not to mention the issue of the threat libraries which I assume the US may be a little reluctant to let go of, or the capability of JEWOSU to self-support this capability. Clearly we don’t have the ranges to train for/validate this capability either.
I want EW support as much as the next guy going downrange. Having flown in two Red Flags, one as a B Cat pilot and one as a B Cat SQN Executive and Mission Commander, I know its value. The Foundation’s assertion that we will continue to rely on Allied support is spot on.
Unless my commanders aren’t telling me something, the RAAF remains a force which aims to maintain the ability to:
- Deal with low-threat conflicts without support, and
- Dovetail seamlessly into larger Coalition packages (with the support that comes with) when required.