ST. LOUIS, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Boeing Co.'s fighter-production plant in St. Louis has begun work on the U.S. Navy's next generation of electronic-warfare jet.
The plant has begun assembling the EA-18G, a variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Saturday. The model is the first of two aircraft being built for the U.S. Navy as part of a $1 billion contract.
The EA-18G will replace Northrop Grumman Corp.'s decades-old EA-6B Prowler, which has been described as slow and defenseless. However, no air-strike mission in Iraq or Afghanistan is flown without an EA-6B.
Boeing's plane, unofficially nicknamed the "Growler," will have the attack and bomb-dropping capabilities of the Super Hornet and electronics-jamming gear produced by Northrop Grumman.
The U.S. Navy expects to have nine EA-18Gs in its fleet by 2009. The plane currently under construction in St. Louis will be airborne by September 2006, Boeing officials said. The Navy's stated requirement calls for 90 of the planes.
