Thank you for the correction! I didn't know that the AN/ALQ-99 is capable of generating its own power via a Ram Air Turbine. The Growler can carry a maximum of 5 such jammers which is pretty impressive to say the least.
In my opinion while having jammers which can generate electricity for themselves without burdening the aircraft's main power supply is a major plus, Certain situations which demand the EA-18 to give out it's absolute maximum jamming power output to completely overwhelm the enemy's radars can have electricity be utilised from the aircraft's main power supply to maximize the jamming strength. Please note that this is just my educated guess aka my two cents.
As mentioned earlier, the ALQ-99 is able to meet its power requirements via a Ram Air Turbine
(RAT) located on the front of each pod but what if during a mission flight, one or more of the ALQ-99 TJS pods develop some malfunction due to which the RAT is not functioning anymore and as a result the jammer pods are not getting any electricity to run on? In that case I am sure that the pilot of the Growler will have to re-rout electricity from the aircraft's main power supply to run the jammers to compensate for the same.
I am certain the engineers who designed and built the EA-18 must have taken such a scenario into consideration. In aviation mishaps and catastrophes happen, anything can happen. This is again just an educated guess of mine.
Coming back to the topic of the LCA Tejas being used as a SEAD platform, I am sure that a twin seater version of the MWF would prove to be sufficient but I will still stick to my opinion that it is always a stealth aircraft like the AMCA which will be the most ideal in carrying such operations.
Anyways this is my last post on the topic, looks we have gone way off topic on the LCA Thread
.We can open a dedicated thread to discuss SEAD, DEAD missions and platforms. Peace out!
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