First RAAF Growler Rolls Out At St. Louis
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The aircraft is identical to the U.S. Navy version aside from the addition of an advanced targeting forward looking infrared (AT-FLIR) system and AIM-9X air-to-air missiles, a configuration that Air Marshal Geoff Brown says will be standard for the RAAF. The AIM-9X is needed for self-defense. With the RAAF operating with a small yet highly advanced air force, the aircraft must be able to react to airborne threats by itself rather than relying on interceptors for support.
The addition of the AT-FLIR system grew out of lessons from U.S. operations in Libya and, later Syria, according to Rear Adm. Donald Gaddis, the Navy’s program executive officer for tactical aircraft. He said to get weapon-quality tracks and kills on ground targets, the Growler operators used their onboard threat detection systems and active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars to locate threats. But they had to use the onboard Multifunction Information Distribution System (MIDS) and Link 16 datalinks to request “eyes on target” from offboard AT-FLIRs on the Super Hornet or other aircraft in order to validate some targets.
“In the other airplanes, they were taking the datalink tracks [from the Growlers] and slewing their sensors onto the targets. That is where the AT-FLIR came in,” he told reporters following the Growler rollout ceremony in St. Louis. Together, “the Growler, the Super Hornet and the datalink – especially the MIDS and the Link 16 messages – it worked pretty well. We took a lot of lessons from that ... when you do that you are decreasing the kill chain even more because you don’t have to datalink to another AT-FLIR. You have got it on your airplane.”
Thus, the Navy is considering incorporating the FLIR into its configuration, he said...
http://aviationweek.com/defense/first-raaf-growler-rolls-out-st-louis#node-1338491
