Northrop Grumman officials on Tuesday said the company has begun assembling the first production elements—center and aft fuselage—for the Navy’s EA-18G Growler. The Growler is slated to replace the EA-6B Prowler, but some only see it as an interim solution and believe the F-35 would make a better dedicated next generation electronic attack aircraft. Northrop says it expects to deliver the first production center and aft fuselage shipset to prime contractor Boeing by April 2007. Northrop already has delivered shipsets for two flight test aircraft for tests later this summer.
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
