{"id":16243,"date":"2016-06-14T21:00:25","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T02:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=16243"},"modified":"2016-06-14T21:00:25","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T02:00:25","slug":"espionage-files-usmc-ea-6b-prowler-fills-new-role-as-spy-plane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/06\/14\/espionage-files-usmc-ea-6b-prowler-fills-new-role-as-spy-plane\/","title":{"rendered":"Espionage Files: USMC EA-6B Prowler Fills New Role as Spy Plane"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"graf--p graf-after--p\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-16244\" src=\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/prowler.jpeg?w=620\" alt=\"prowler\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"8fb9\" class=\"graf--p graf-after--p\">When the EA-6B Prowler electronic-warfare plane first entered service with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps starting in 1971, its main job was to scramble enemy radars and radios with its powerful jammers.<\/p>\n<p id=\"25c7\" class=\"graf--p graf-after--p\">But with the Marines and the other U.S. armed services facing severe shortages of various planes, the few remaining Prowlers are now filling in\u200a\u2014\u200aas flying spies over Iraq.<\/p>\n<p id=\"0835\" class=\"graf--p graf-after--p\">In May 2016, the main Pentagon\u2019s task force in charge of the war on Islamic State <a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CJTFOIR\/photos\/?tab=album&amp;album_id=1704987413100726\">posted a series of pictures<\/a> of different aircraft on Facebook\u200a\u2014\u200aand at least one included a Prowler. The photograph was notable, since the jet from Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron Four was carrying a <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">targeting pod<\/em> instead of its normal jamming gear.<\/p>\n<div class=\"section-inner layoutSingleColumn\">\n<p id=\"c5cf\" class=\"graf--p graf-after--figure\">n January 2015, the Marine Corps told War Is Boring that its Prowlers were\u00a0<a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/warisboring.com\/bzzt-marine-corps-jets-are-jamming-islamic-state-c7d9abcdde8e#.qpgjafie7\">helping fight Islamic State<\/a>, but had declined to provide any specifics. The jets were likely flying missions from the Marines\u2019 main air hub at Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait. In April, more Marine EA-6Bs arrived at Incirlik air base in Turkey.<\/p>\n<p id=\"f072\" class=\"graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote graf-after--p\">\u201cProwlers\u00a0\u2026 provide an umbrella of protection to coalition aircraft and ground troops in the fight against Da\u2019esh by degrading Da\u2019esh communications,\u201d Air Force major Omar Villarreal, the media operations chief at the flying branch\u2019s top command for the Middle East, told War Is Boring via email, using another common name for Islamic State.<\/p>\n<p id=\"5466\" class=\"graf--p graf-after--p\">Thankfully, terrorists in Iraq don\u2019t have any long-range, radar-guided surface-to-air missiles for the Prowlers to jam. But with Islamic State proving to be both highly organized and especially propaganda savvy, there <em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">have<\/em> been more than enough opportunities to shut down the group\u2019s communications networks, radio broadcasts and more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"graf--p graf-after--p\">Read the Remainder at<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/warisboring.com\/the-u-s-marines-jamming-jets-are-spying-on-islamic-state-5a5430de5b71?mc_cid=b133355683&amp;mc_eid=1149a36069#.ib6n90kld\">War is Boring<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"section-inner sectionLayout--outsetRow\"><\/div>\n<figure id=\"5d4f\" class=\"graf--figure graf-after--p\">\n<div class=\"aspectRatioPlaceholder is-locked\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the EA-6B Prowler electronic-warfare plane first entered service with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps starting in 1971, its main job was to scramble enemy radars and radios with its powerful jammers. But with the Marines and the other U.S. armed services facing severe shortages of various planes, the few remaining Prowlers are now&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1704,5072,74,2908,1725,4880,272,1898],"tags":[12240,3281,12241,12242,3913],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}