US Air Force probes structrual viability of EC-130H Compass Calls

The US Air Force has revealed that the structural health of its primary airborne\nelectronic attack platform, the EC-130H Compass Call, is under review by a\nfleet viability board.

The board's members will determine by January how the\nairframes of the 14-aircraft Compass Call fleet have held up after nearly a\ndecade of hyper-activity, says Col Stephen Brown, chief of electronic warfare\nrequirements.

The US Air Force's primary system for jamming communications\nsystems has been in high demand in both Afghanistan\nand Iraq,\npresumably for disrupting the comparatively primitive command and control\nnetworks of insurgents and jamming the triggering devices for improvised\nexplosive devices.

The Compass Call fleet has operated at a rate 2.5 times\ngreater than planned, Brown says in an interview. But it's not clear if any\nmajor concerns prompted USAF officials to call for the fleet viability board\nreview.

\"I'm not gong to say it was a worry or a concern,\" Brown\nsays.

The results of the review will be closely scrutinized by the\njoint community. The Compass Calls are not only in high demand in current\noperations, but are the primary aerial weapon for jamming or disrupting enemy communications\nin a \"near-peer\" conflict.

Moreover, the Compass Call's future viability is a hot issue\nwithin the USAF. By default, the EC-130H fleet now stands as a pillar of the\nUSAF's airborne electronic attack strategy, with the final demise earlier this year of a plan to\nconvert some B-52s into standoff broadband signals jammers. Brown confirms the B-52 core component jammer programme was canceled because a broadband jammer was not deemed cost-effective.

If the Compass Call viability review  finds any problems, the USAF could\nbe faced with an unplanned, and expensive, repair or replacement bill. USAF\nofficials have previously stated that WC-130s or TC-130s, or both, could be\nconverted into EC-130Hs if the demand required it.

The US Navy is also starting to field its own communications\njamming system. The Boeing EA-18G Growler carries the Raytheon ALQ-227\ncommunications countermeasures set.

The US Army also appears interested in creating a similar\ncapability by repackaging the ALQ-227 into a jamming pod that can be carried by\nunmanned aircraft system such as the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc\nMQ-1C Sky Warrior.