Boeing EA-18G Growler

Updated: October 2026 – At first glance it is an ordinary two-seat Super Hornet: square air intakes, wide wing roots, two canted vertical stabilizers. Then you notice the thick pods at the wingtips, the big pods under the fuselage and the nose with no cannon opening. By now you know: this is a Boeing EA-18G Growler, the aircraft with which the US Navy jams enemy radars and radio links. Here you will learn how the Growler came about, how to recognize it reliably, who flies it and why it was a topic of conversation in Germany for years.

What is the EA-18G Growler?

The Growler is a twin-engine, carrier-based electronic warfare aircraft. In English technical jargon this is called Airborne Electronic Attack. What that means: it fights the enemy not primarily with bombs or missiles but in the electromagnetic spectrum. It receives radar and radio signals, classifies them and jams them in a targeted way so that other aircraft in the formation reach their target unseen or at least harder to detect. Against radar sites on the ground it can also employ AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missiles.

The platform for this is the two-seat F/A-18F, which you can get to know in detail on the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet page. Boeing turned this airframe into a specialist: the 20 mm cannon in the nose has been removed, and electronics now sit there. In the fuselage, too, where parts of the weapons electronics sit on the F, the jamming systems take priority. The pilot sits in front and the Electronic Warfare Officer, who operates the systems, in back.

Propulsion, dimensions and flight performance largely match the Super Hornet. Two General Electric F414 engines deliver about 98 kilonewtons of thrust each with afterburner, and top speed at high altitude is about Mach 1.8. That has a big advantage: the Growler flies at the same speed as the fighters it protects. Its predecessor, the much slower EA-6B Prowler, could not do that.

From Prowler to Growler

For decades the Grumman EA-6B Prowler was the US Navy’s flying jammer. It was based on a bomber from the 1960s, had four seats and had become too slow and too maintenance-intensive for modern carrier groups. The Navy looked for a successor that would fit seamlessly into the carrier air wings – and found it in its own fleet. Since the Super Hornet was meant to form the backbone of the carrier air wings anyway, it made sense to pack the jamming technology into this airframe. Common spare parts, training and maintenance save costs, and Boeing still stresses the close kinship within the Super Hornet family today.

The first flight of an EA-18G took place on August 15, 2006 in St. Louis, the production site that Boeing inherited from the merger with McDonnell Douglas. The first training squadron, VAQ-129, received its first aircraft in June 2008 at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington State. In the fall of 2009, VAQ-132 was ready as the first operational squadron; the Navy declared full operational capability in 2011.

In the same year the Growler also went into action for the first time: over Libya, as part of Operation Odyssey Dawn. In the following years it took over the Prowler’s missions step by step, and the Prowler left Navy service in the mid-2010s.

According to common reference works, a total of 172 Growlers had been built by 2021. Growler production ended in the late 2010s; since then the focus has been on modernization, for example with new software and the Next Generation Jammer.

The electronics: what the Growler carries on its hooks

For spotters, the Growler’s equipment is exciting for a simple reason: you can see it from the outside. That sets the Growler apart from many other special versions.

• Receivers at the wingtips: Where the Super Hornet carries slender air-to-air missiles, the Growler has thick, elongated pods of the AN/ALQ-218 system. They receive and locate enemy signals.
• Jammers under wings and fuselage: Classically, the Growler carries up to five AN/ALQ-99 jammer pods. They are large and conspicuous and usually have a small propeller at the front that drives a generator in the airstream. Gradually the new Next Generation Jammer AN/ALQ-249 is being added, a modern jammer pod with electronically steered antennas.
• Weapons: Depending on the mission, missiles are added, such as AIM-120 AMRAAM for self-defense or AGM-88 HARM against radar sites.
• Radar: In the nose sits an APG-79 AESA radar, as on the Block II Super Hornet.

Because stations, pods and missiles change depending on the mission, not every Growler looks the same. An aircraft on a ferry flight, for example, may only be traveling with external fuel tanks. The pods at the wingtips, however, are as a rule always mounted and are thus your most reliable feature.

Growler or F/A-18F Super Hornet?

The F/A-18F is the closest relative and therefore the most common mix-up. Both have two seats under a long canopy, square intakes and two canted vertical stabilizers. The differences lie in the details.

Feature	F/A-18F Super Hornet	EA-18G Growler
Role	Air combat and ground attack	Electronic warfare
Seats	2	2
Wingtips	slender missile or empty	thick receiver pods
Onboard cannon	20 mm M61A2 cannon	none
Typical external loads	Bombs, missiles, tanks	Jammer pods, HARM, AMRAAM, tanks
Squadron prefix (US Navy)	VFA	VAQ
Operators	US Navy, Australia	US Navy, Australia

A good additional clue is the squadron. In the US Navy, Growler squadrons carry the prefix VAQ, while fighter squadrons with Super Hornets carry VFA. The prefixes are often small on the fuselage, and squadron badges and the air wing code on the tail also reveal the unit. How Navy serial numbers and codes are structured is explained in the article on US military serials.

One step further back stands the Legacy Hornet. It has round instead of square air intakes and only comes into question as a Growler mix-up at long distance.

For a broader overview of how to tell the Hornet family, the Eurofighter, F-35 and others apart, see the guide Identifying fighter jets in Europe.

Who flies the Growler

The list of operators is short – shorter even than for the Super Hornet.

Operator	Fleet	Base and notes
US Navy	Bulk of the roughly 170 aircraft built	Centered on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island (Washington); squadrons with the prefix VAQ, on aircraft carriers and ashore
Royal Australian Air Force	12	No. 6 Squadron, RAAF Base Amberley (Queensland); serial numbers with the prefix A46

US Navy: Almost the entire Growler fleet is based at Whidbey Island in the northwestern US. From there the squadrons go aboard the aircraft carriers. Some of the squadrons are organized as so-called expeditionary squadrons, which are deployed not on carriers but from land bases. Test and evaluation units come on top of that.

Australia: The Royal Australian Air Force is so far the only export customer. The first Growlers arrived in Australia in July 2015, the last in 2017. The squadron shares Amberley base with Australia’s Super Hornets. In 2018 an Australian Growler was lost to a fire after an aborted takeoff during the Red Flag exercise at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada; the crew was unhurt, and a replacement aircraft arrived in early 2023. In the same year Australia also announced an extensive modernization of its Growler fleet.

Germany and the Growler: a procurement that never came

In Germany the Growler was a political issue for several years. The background is the replacement of the Panavia Tornado. The Luftwaffe uses the Tornado version ECR (Electronic Combat and Reconnaissance) for exactly the mission the Growler performs in the Navy: detecting and suppressing enemy air defenses. After more than four decades in service, however, the Tornado is expensive to maintain and is to be retired by about 2030.

In April 2020 the Ministry of Defense presented a concept that envisaged a mixed successor: more Eurofighters, plus 30 Super Hornets and 15 Growlers. The Growlers would have taken over the ECR role, and the Super Hornets, among other things, nuclear sharing. Nothing was decided with that, though, and the concept was politically contested.

In March 2022 came the turnaround: the federal government chose the F-35 Lightning II as the Tornado successor in nuclear sharing. For electronic warfare, Germany instead relies on a solution of its own: 15 Eurofighters are being converted into an electronic warfare version, often called the Eurofighter EK. They are to be equipped with jamming technology and anti-radiation missiles and be operational around 2030. The Growler is thus off the table for the Luftwaffe.

For spotters this means: there will be no Growler in German colors. If you want to follow the Tornado ECR’s successor, look to the Eurofighter wings – tips are in the article Spotting Eurofighters in Germany.

Where you see the Growler in Europe

Since no European country flies the Growler, sightings in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are rare and hard to plan. A few opportunities exist nevertheless:

• Carrier groups in European waters: When a US aircraft carrier is under way in the Mediterranean or Atlantic, a Growler squadron is almost always on board. Individual aircraft occasionally land ashore, for example for exercises or maintenance.
• Expeditionary squadrons: The Navy’s land-based Growler squadrons are deployed to bases abroad depending on the situation – including in Europe. Such deployments usually only become known at short notice.
• Exercises and airshows: At major shows such as the Royal International Air Tattoo, US Navy jets are sometimes there and sometimes not. An overview of worthwhile events is offered by Airshows in Europe for plane spotters.

Because military flights often are missing from tracking services or only appear incompletely, the guide Tracking military aircraft online helps you. For serials and squadron assignments, a look at databases like Scramble is also worthwhile.

What is allowed at the fence of a military airfield is explained in the article Photographing military airfields: the rules.

Photo tips for the Growler

The Growler rewards photos that show its equipment. A picture in which you can make out wingtips and pods is later also the proof for the type identification.

For shows, the tips in Photographing airshows help you, and for light planning the guide Planning the sun position for your photo spot.

The Growler among other specialists

The Growler is part of a system. On US carriers it works closely with the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye early warning aircraft, which monitors the airspace while the Growler jams enemy sensors. Ashore, Navy bases often share the space with maritime patrol aircraft like the Boeing P-8 Poseidon, which, like the Growler, is based at Whidbey Island. And in Australia the Growler, together with the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail and the F-35, forms the backbone of a networked air force.

If you are interested in the prehistory of carrier aircraft, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat is the classic that the Super Hornet family replaced on the decks.

Logging the Growler in Planetrack

A Growler sighting in Europe is a real catch. In Planetrack you post it with photo, aircraft type, serial, operator, airport and spot and then keep it permanently in your hangar. On the wish list you note types you are still missing – such as the Australian Growler or the Legacy Hornet. The spot map shows you directions, best light and community photos, and in the community you share your pictures, collect likes and comments or chat with other military spotters.

Conclusion

The EA-18G Growler is proof that a proven fighter can take on a completely new job. From the two-seat F/A-18F came a specialist for electronic warfare that keeps up with the jets it protects. For spotters it is a rewarding subject: pods at the wingtips, the missing cannon and large jammer pods give it away reliably. In Europe it remains rare because only the US Navy and Australia fly it – and because Germany, after a long debate, decided on the Eurofighter and F-35.