Apicture of a U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler taking part in the current operations against Iran shows the plane carrying an interesting split load of two different electronic warfare pods. Typically, Growlers carry a pair of new AN/ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammer-Mid Band (NGJ-MB) pods or older AN/ALQ-99 pods under their wings, not one of each. The NGJ-MB pods offer a major leap in capability, but have continued to face reliability and other challenges. In general, the capabilities Growlers provide are essential to help support the launching of standoff strikes in the opening phases of a conflict, as well as missions penetrating deeper into defended areas as time goes on.
U.S. Central Command released the image of the EA-18G, seen at the top of this story, and taken as the aircraft was launching from the Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, last week. The Growler in question is assigned to the Electronic Attack Squadron 133 (VAQ-133). The Lincoln’s air wing, which has been very active in support of Operation Epic Fury since it began, also includes F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and F-35C fighters, E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning and control planes, CMV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor carrier onboard delivery aircraft, and MH-60R/S Seahawk helicopters.
At first glance, the EA-18G picture is unremarkable, but a closer inspection shows the jet has one ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System (TJS) pod and one AN/ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammer-Mid Band (NGJ-MB) pod under its left and right wings, respectively. The aircraft also has a drop tank under each wing, as well as what looks to be a third one on the centerline station under its fuselage. The Navy is in the process of replacing the ALQ-99s in part with the ALQ-249, something we will come back to later on.
The Navy is still in the process of transitioning away from the ALQ-99, and those pods remain in active service alongside ALQ-249s. However, TWZ was told in a past interview with two top officers involved in the NGJ-MB effort that the standard mixed loadout for jets carrying ALQ-249s is one of those pods under each wing, along with an ALQ-99 on the centerline. Growlers continue to fly operational missions carrying just ALQ-99s, as well.
The NGJ-MB pod has suffered from reliability and other technical issues in the past. At least as of the end of Fiscal Year 2025, the pods have continued to face challenges, according to a newly released report from the Pentagon’s Office of the Director of Test and Evaluation (DOT&E).
“The NGJ-MB with the OFP 5.3 software series is not currently suitable for supporting operational missions, due to additional progress required to improve reliability and availability,” the DOT&E report said. “The NGJ-MB system met its maintainability requirements, and
aircrew and maintainers found training to be adequate. Insufficient data are currently available to draw any significant conclusions
on pilot and maintainer workload and usability, given the sample size of the data.”
What steps the Navy may have taken to mitigate these issues since the end of the 2025 Fiscal Year is unknown. Whether this particular software configuration is found in deployed pods that are being used operationally is also not known.
“The Navy has deployed the NGJ-MB to five different Electronic Attack Squadrons,” the report also notes.
However, as its name makes clear, the ALQ-249 was originally designed primarily to provide mid-band coverage. ALQ-99s come in two separate versions, offering high and low-band coverage, respectively. Air defense radars and other targets for electronic warfare attacks do not all operate in the same frequency ranges, and some are capable of widely modulating their signal outputs specifically to help reduce vulnerability to jamming. Broader frequency ranges could also help when dealing with known threat systems that are being operated in unfamiliar ways.
“The NGJ-MB is assessed to be at least as operationally effective as the legacy AN/ALQ-99 system, against the threats tested on the open-air test ranges during IOT&E,” according to DOT&E’s report. However, the office’s “full assessment of operational effectiveness is provided in the classified IOT&E report published in July 2025.”
A separate Next Generation Jammer-Low Band (NGJ-LB) pod, now designated the AN/ALQ-266, is in development to complement as part of plans to completely replace the ALQ-99 family. However, as of 2024, the NGJ-LB pod was not expected to reach even an early operational capability until 2029. A years-long contract dispute contributed to the delays in work on this pod.