O’Bryan said the power of the F-35’s EW/EA systems can be inferred from the fact that the Marine Corps “is going to replace its EA-6B [a dedicated jamming aircraft] with the baseline F-35B” with no additional pods or internal systems. Asked about the Air Force’s plans, O’Bryan answered with several rhetorical Questions: “Are they investing in a big jammer fleet? Are they buying [EA-18G] Growlers?” Then he said, “There’s a capability here.”
WILL F-35 CUSTOMERS GET ADVANCED JAMMER?
The U.S. Navy is providing some details about what the Next Generation Jammer might add to the air defense-busting capabilities of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but the unique and futuristic capabilities of the jammer raise questions about how many of those yet-to-be-defined abilities will be available to foreign purchasers of the JSF.........
Still to be determined is whether the NGJ system will be exportable to other JSF-buying nations. The NGJ is designed to defend the F-35 against heavily protected surface-to-air missiles (SAM) and suppress integrated enemy air defenses such as the SA-20. Advanced SAM systems might be used by Iran, for example, to defend nuclear weapons, ballistic missile and key command-and-control sites. U.S. analysts say only a stealthy, high-flying, supercruise aircraft can avoid destruction in the heart of such defenses.........