Growlers for Australia?

This comes from Jane’s Defence:

Australia considers EA-18G Growler purchase

Jon Grevatt Asia-Pacific Reporter

Gareth Jennings Reporter

The Australian Department of Defence (DoD) is considering the purchase of an unspecified number of Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, a spokesman for Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon told Jane’s on 15 August.

The spokesman added that Fitzgibbon had recently asked Washington about the export availability of the aircraft and that a team of senior defence officials from Canberra visited the United States last week to discuss the issue. The spokesman added that Washington’s response to the request is not yet known.

The aircraft is derived from the F/A-18F Block II Super Hornet and would, if purchased, be included among the 24 F/A-18F aircraft that Australia has agreed to purchase from the US for a total of AUD6.6 billion (USD5.7 billion).

The review of the Growler forms an element within the second part of the DoD’s Air Combat Capability Review, which will consider Australia’s air combat capability needs to 2045. The review is scheduled to be complete by the end of the year.

The first part of the review, completed in March 2008, focused on the feasibility of retaining the Royal Australian Air Force’s ageing General Dynamics F-111 strike aircraft beyond 2010 and the status of Australia’s plans to acquire the Super Hornet.

Speaking to reporters at Boeing’s Integrated Defense Solutions headquarters at St Louis in Missouri on 11 June, Boeing’s EA-18G Programme Manager Mike Gibbons said that he feels there is “definite potential” to export the EA-18G to the international market.

He added that the sensitive and classified nature of many of the Growler’s systems would prohibit export to all but a handful of US-friendly states and that, up to that point, the US Navy had yet to receive any foreign interest in the aircraft.