The Marines Want to Use the F-35 to Jam Enemy Radar

Video Report Above: Navy Expands, Networks New Radar Targeting Across Fleet (Hear from Navy Capt. Hall)

By David Axe,The National Interest

The U.S. Marine Corps is trying to figure out how to wage electronic warfare now that the service has retired the last of its EA-6B Prowler radar-jamming planes.

The Prowler, a four-seat version of the long-retired, two-seat A-6 attack plane, finally bowed out of service in March 2019.

The Prowler carried AN/ALQ-99 jamming pods under its wings and also could fire High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles, or HARMs. Navy and Marine Corps EA-6Bs suppressed and destroyed enemy air defenses in every major American conflict after 1970.

But by 2019 the Prowlers were old and only a few remained in service. The Navy retired its Prowlers in 2015. The last six Marine EA-6Bs spent their final months flying combat missions over the Middle East.

The Navy replaced its EA-6Bs with new EA-18G Growlers, but the Marines opted not to purchase this radar-jamming variant of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Instead, the Corps is trying something new, and spreading the electronic-warfare mission across a wide array of aircraft including stealth fighters and drones.