WASHINGTON – The US State Department has approved a possible foreign military sale to Australia of an EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft to replace one lost in a crash.
The Defense and Security Cooperation Agency said in a September 30 notification that the transaction – which would include the aircraft plus “engineering and modification; verification and validation flight test efforts ; maintenance and storage; Technical / engineering assistance from the US government and contractors; related studies and analytical support; and other related elements of programmatic, technical and logistical support â€- would cost approximately $ 125 million.
The EA-18G would be from Lot 38 or later and would be modified to fit the configuration of the remaining 11 EA-18Gs of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
“This aircraft would replace the Australian EA-18G A46-311 aircraft lost in an accident at Nellis air base [Nevada]The DSCA said, noting that the aircraft would come from the US Navy’s existing EA-18G inventory.
Boeing initially delivered 160 EA-18Gs to the US Navy and 12 to the RAAF.
