VMAQ-3, the next to last Marine Corps tactical electronic warfare (EW) squadron, was deactivated in May 2018. The final squadron will encase colors in early 2019, leaving the Corps with no comparable airborne expeditionary EW capability.
The Marine Corps Tactical Electronic Warfare (VMAQ) community that has been at the forefront of airborne electronic warfare (EW) and a part of the national defense posture for more than 50 years is nearly gone. Three of the four VMAQ squadrons have been decommissioned, with the final squadron, VMAQ-2, scheduled to encase its colors in March 2019. With the stand-down of VMAQ-2, the entire community—one Fleet Replacement Squadron, three operational squadrons, 24 EA-6B Improved Capability (ICAP) III aircraft, and the expeditionary logistic and support capabilities to sustain combat operations—will have been disbanded.
The initial decision to stand down the community and sundown the EA-6B was made more than 15 years ago, with proponents justifying the decision based on funding shortfalls, an aging airframe, the highly touted new F-35B, and a proposed electronic warfare/electronic attack (EW/EA) variant that was later canceled because of airframe and projected cost issues. As a replacement for the Prowler, the F-35B has several unique EW capabilities, but as an EA /jamming platform, its EW weapon suite is only self-protective in nature. The ability to conduct escort and standoff jamming in support of legacy aircraft (AV-8s and F/A-18s) would be limited. In addition, used in a jamming mode, the stealth technology’s effectiveness would be compromised, placing the aircraft in jeopardy of radar detection and targeting.
In 2010, the VMAQ community began transitioning from the ICAP II aircraft to the EA-6B ICAP III—a state-of-the-art technological EW weapon system modernization that integrated the same ALR218 receiver system/ALQ-99 tactical jamming system used by the EA-18 Growler. To this day, the EA-6B ICAP IIIs’ software and weapon system upgrades parallel EA-18G EW weapon system improvements. The aging EA-6B ICAP III airframes also were outfitted with new center wing panels and maintenance improvements that extended estimated airframe life expectancy to 2023.
The inability or refusal of Marine Corps leadership to reverse course on the shutdown leaves the Marine Aerial Vehicle Unit (VMU) as the designated organization within the Marine air-ground task force (MAGTF) responsible for airborne EW/EA. Although the VMU’s 7315 occupational specialty has had “electronic warfare” added to the description, the community has minimal airborne EW and no EA weapon system capabilities, no formal aviation EW training, and minimal airborne EW/EA expertise, with fewer than a dozen EA-6B aircrew members having transitioned into the VMU community over the past four years. The decommissioning of the VMAQ community leaves a recognized five- to six-year gap in MAGTF EW/EA capabilities.
No matter how the loss of the VMAQ community and EA-6B ICAP III is spun, the MAGTF and the combatant commanders will sorely miss the aircraft’s unique capabilities and the high-end EW training and expertise formulated and honed by the VMAQ community.
The Department of Defense (DoD) is facing the loss of 50 percent of its airborne expeditionary EW assets. While the Navy has indicated it will assume the expeditionary EW mission, it will accept the EA requirements with an increase of only one additional operational VAQ squadron. The Navy’s five EA-18G expeditionary squadrons will be in high demand and extremely challenged to meet the combatant commanders’ and DoD’s EA requirements.
Will on-call EA-18G EA capabilities be adequate to support Marine Corps requirements? Not likely. Disbanding the VMAQ community was a tactical and strategic mistake. Marines train and operate differently from their sister service and always will. Marines supporting Marines always has been the core of its warfighting doctrine and should be retained.
Even more disconcerting should be the loss of the Marine Corps airborne EW schoolhouse that not only trained EA-6B aircrew to fly and operate the Prowler, but also was the Corps’ sole source for educating and providing knowledgeable and experienced aviation EW staff officers. Further perplexing is how little concern has been shown by Headquarters Marine Corps for preserving some semblance of airborne EW expertise and continuity.
On 27 May 2016, VMAQT-1, the Prowler training squadron, was decommissioned, disbanding an exceptional staff of EA-6B ICAP III instructors and tactical EW experts. These individuals were dedicated to graduating first-class E-warriors. The EA-6B facilities and devices—including two front-seat trainers and one back-seat ICAP III weapon system trainer—were first class, state of the art. The flight and EW training prepared aircrews with an extensive tactical understanding and weapon system background to combat and counter the EW threats they would contend with on today’s battlefield.
All airborne EW training was developed and designed to support the fifth function of Marine aviation: electronic warfare, addressed and defined in Marine Corps Warfighting Publication 3-2, “Aviation Operations.”
After VMAQ-2 encases colors in March 2019, the shuttering of the VMAQ community will be complete. Its disbandment leaves the Marine Corps with no comparable airborne expeditionary EW capabilities to offset the loss of VMAQ and EA-6B resources. The Marine Corps will have abdicated the prominent role the VMCJ and VMAQ community has held in expeditionary EW since Vietnam—50 years of airborne EW expertise and warfighting capabilities that were, and still are, relevant and essential to this nation’s success on the battlefield today and into the future.
Lieutenant Colonel Johnson has been associated with the VMAQ community for more than 45 years—23 years on active duty in the Marine Corps, including two years as commanding officer of VMAQ-2, and 22 years as an EA-6B ICAP II/III instructor at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, NC. He recently was selected as president of the “John R. Dailey” Squadron, Marine Corps Aviation Association.