MILITARY ELECTONIC ATTACK SQUADRON 129
service, he served on an overseas tour,
before being posted to work in the RAAF
Growler Transition Office.
Based in Air Force Headquarters, the
office is manned by a team of specialists
responsible for overseeing Australia’s
defence needs for the EA-18G Growler from
an operational perspective and how the
type will integrate into the wider Australian
Defence Force. Growler acquisition is
handled by another team focused on
delivering Australia’s first dedicated
electronic attack capability on time. When
Sqn Ldr Drum graduates from VAQ-129 he
will return to Australia and join 6 Squadron
based at Amberley.
As a foreign national, Drum is classed as
a Cat 5 student, the US Navy’s classification
given to students taking a flight training
course as part of a foreign military sales
programme. Some of the initial cadre of RAAF
students arriving for the Growler conversion
course were former F/A-18F Super Hornet
aircrew who take an abbreviated course
depending on their type currency. If current
on the F/A-18F their operating experience
is recognised, so they typically take just the
electronic attack phase. In addition, because
the RAAF is only conducting land-based
Growler operations, its students are not
required to complete carrier qualifications
with VAQ-129.
Once students arrive back at Amberley
they are rated as a D-category pilot or EWO;
however they are not quite ready to be
integrated in to the squadron, because they
need to do basic Australian familiarisation
training to ensure what they did with theUS Navy can be aligned to RAAF-specific
procedures. Incoming aircrew need to
be aware of differences in areas such as
emergency procedures, formation flying,
terminology and plane captain hand signals.
The Australian transition course lasts
between four and five weeks and qualifies
each student as a fully fledged squadron
pilot or EWO aircrew before beginning further
tactical training.
Once Sqn Ldr Drum returns to Amberley
he will join the initial cadre of crews, which
are still building up to the number required
to declare initial operational capability
and eventually full operational capability.
Despite the gradual build-up to full operating
capability, which is a few years away, people
already serving on 6 Squadron will start to
be posted out to maintain other instructor
and requirements’ billets that require
experienced people.
Explaining the Australian training pipeline,
Sqn Ldr Drum said: “We fully align with the
US Navy system and finish the conversion
course as a Cat 5 FMS student and we are
also aligned in all respects as to what is
expected of us from a RAAF perspective. We
are not required to conduct additional training
in preparation for when we arrive home, but
we do have access to the full set of Australian
tactical documentation, [although] we don’t
really need those while at VAQ-129. However,
many of the Australian students make an
effort to read the documents to gain a deeper
knowledge about advanced tactics and the
aircraft’s intricate electronic warfare systems,
because once they arrive at 6 Squadron they
know it becomes a requirement.”Australia’s Growler programme
The Australian Government decided to buy an
airborne electronic attack capability in 2013.
The decision to buy 12 new EA-18G Growlers
was for the most part caused by the delay
in receiving the F-35A Lightning II. Prior to
the realisation the F-35 was going to be late
entering RAAF service, 12 of the Australian
F/A-18F Super Hornets were earmarked for
possible modification to Growler configuration;
the aircraft were wired for modification on
Boeing’s production line at St Louis, Missouri.
Because the RAAF was not prepared to
halve its 24-strong Super Hornet strike force
when faced with a capability gap caused by
slips in the F-35A programme, the new build
Growlers were ordered: a good result for
Australia. The first Aussie Growlers rolled off
the production line in 2015. Most of them went
into storage at Boeing’s St Louis facility and
were eventually delivered to the RAAF between
January and March 2017. The aircraft were
accepted into RAAF service by Australians at
Whidbey Island. Each aircraft underwent at
least one acceptance flight conducted from
Whidbey. By late May, seven aircraft had been
ferried to Amberley, with the remaining five
at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake,
California for operational test and evaluation
conducted by 6 Squadron. These aircraft have
since been ferried to Amberley.
The RAAF made smart moves before
accepting its aircraft. Some of its aircrews
had acquired up to three years’ operational
experience serving with the US Navy’s
expeditionary EA-18G squadrons, which
provided the very best experience of daily
flight operations; many of those aircrew areRoyal Australian Air Force
EA-18G A46-301 wearing No.6
Squadron markings at low-level
in a canyon in southern Califor-
nia. Dan Stijovich