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Air Force to replace Compass Call

The EC-130H Compass Call is the Air Force’s primary communications jamming system. It’s also one of the oldest airframe fleets in the force. It’s one of the lesser-known — but also one of the most important — weapons in the fight against the Islamic State: The EC-130H Compass Call, a suite of complex communication-jamming systems,…

The EC-130H Compass Call is the Air Force’s primary communications jamming system. It’s also one of the oldest airframe fleets in the force.

It’s one of the lesser-known — but also one of the most important — weapons in the fight against the Islamic State: The EC-130H Compass Call, a suite of complex communication-jamming systems, stuffed into aging cargo planes that date back to the Vietnam War.
But over the next dozen years, the Compass Call will get a new lease on life. By the end of 2029, the Air Force is planning to transplant the guts of its EC-130Hs into 10 new airframes, dubbed the EC-X.
And not a moment too soon. The airframes that make up the Air Force’s current fleet of 15 EC-130Hs date back decades, and they’re growing increasingly creaky. The 386th Expeditionary Wing in the Middle East, for example, has one Compass Call aircraft that dates back to 1973 and another that first flew in 1964.

What’s interesting here is the airframe selection approach. The obvious answer would be to stuff the mission components into new-build C-130J airframes.  Instead, the Air Force is leaving airframe selection and integration to the prime contractor, L3 Systems. L3 will choose an existing commercial airframe, and design the electronic integration. We’ll be very curious to see how that selection goes.

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Responses to “Air Force to replace Compass Call”

  1. FormerFlyer

    The Boeing P8 airframe would be an interesting choice. I don’t know how close Compass Call has to fly to the area it is disrupting to do its magic, but I imagine a P8 would have room for everything the current version carries, plus all the electricity it would need to get the job done, plus a bomb bay that could hold a number of modern Precision Ordnance packages for a standby, standoff interdiction capability as well.
    I don’t know if that would make it better or worse, or just putting too much in one airframe, but I can imagine it might be useful to have your loiter vehicle running around with a dozen SDBs ready to drop 50 or 60 miles away. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

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  2. Philip Ngai

    I would imagine the reasons for choosing a C-130 airframe for the current Compass Call (good fuel efficiency, shorter runway requirements) would still apply.
    Do we want an armed Compass Call? Ground attack? Self-defense (Sidewinder)? SEAD? Or maybe use the tried and true combined arms strategy.

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  3. LT Rusty

    P-8 conversion would be a very interesting choice, FF. You’re 100% right. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Navy would get onboard with an EP-8, too, and thereby perhaps improve the economics of the project by a decent amount…

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  4. FormerFlyer

    LT Rusty:
    Hadn’t thought about an EP-8, but that’s kind of a cool option too. Wow, interesting to see what you can do with a commercial open platform like the 737 / P-8. Lots of options there.
    Philip:
    I don’t know that the C-130 has what you might call good fuel efficiency. I know it can have tremendous loiter time, but I don’t know that that’s quite the same thing. In any case, an effective platform for the Compass Call mission in the past.
    FormerFlyer

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