The U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command’s EC-37B has been redesignated to become the EA-37B effective October 27, 2023. The EA-37B aircraft designation was selected to better identify the platform’s mission of finding, attacking and destroying enemy land or sea targets. One aircraft has been delivered to Air Force Materiel Command for development and operational testing. Delivery of the first EA-37B in ACC to the 55th Electronic Combat Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. is expected in 2024. Additionally, the aircraft will assume the popular name “Compass Call” in fiscal year 2026 or upon retirement of the EC-130H if earlier.
To date, Air Combat Command (ACC) has divested 9 of 14 EC-130Hs. The divested aircraft are being stored at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group located at Davis-Monthan AFB. The EA-37B is a wide-area airborne electromagnetic attack weapon system using a heavily modified version of the Gulfstream G550 airframe. The EA-37B sustains Joint Force military advantage in electromagnetic battlespace and builds a more lethal force by modernizing electromagnetic attack capabilities to deny peer competitors’ tactical networks and information ecosystems.
In the civilian world the aircraft is flown on executive transport missions, hence the ‘C’ for ‘cargo’, while the ‘E’ designated the version as an electronic attack aircraft. The EA-37B will also be given the title Compass Call once the EC-130s that bear the name are retired, which is projected to occur in 2026. The EA-37’s immediate predecessor, the EC-130, and other transports converted for electronic attack retained their ‘C’ designations and will continue to do so until their retirement, projected in 2026. The first of 10 EA-37Bs was delivered on 12 September and is now undergoing testing.
Th EA-37B will not become obsolete when the U.S. Air Force brings on Collaborative Combat Aircraft that can also perform electronic attack and electronic warfare missions, Kelly said, calling the two kinds of aircraft “complementary.” The EA-37B is designed not to inflict “electronic fratricide” on the F-15EX and F-35’s electronic warfare suites. The jet-powered EA-37B will be an improvement over the turboprop EC-130H in that it can fly almost twice as high and fast as the EC-130H, which is limited to a ceiling of 25,000 feet and a speed of 300 knots. Testing of the EA-37B is being done at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
