Navy EB-47E

Flight Journal, Aug 2002 by Kling, Robert E

Apart from it small group of aviation enthusiasts, few know that from 1965 to 1977, two USAF B-47s served its electronic countermeasures (ECM) aircraft for the Navy. There were three versions ot the EB-47E, as the B-47 was designated, of which tile U.S. Navy used the third. The Navy used them for ECM missions, but they were operated and maintained by civilian crews from McDonnell Douglas in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The aircrafts' external wing tanks were replaced by intrusion, deception and jamming ECM equipment; chaff dispensers were also added.

The aircraft operated under the direction of the fleet Electronic Warfare Support Group, which provided fleet support. The aircraft were used for standoff jamming and chaff dispensing as well as missile simulation and communication deception jamming.

They shadowed surface battle groups as they steamed across the Atlantic Ocean and gave the groups' combat-systems operators a real workout to improve their skills against simulated enemy electronic and missile threats. Foday, Learjet types 36 and 37 under contract to the U.S. Navy are used for the same exercises.

The EB-47E had a crew of three, a weight of 206,700 pounds (gross), six General Electric J-47-GE-25 turbojet engines each rated at 7,200 pounds of thrust, a 600mph maximum speed, a 40,500-foot service ceiling and a 4,000-mile range.

EB-47E 24100 was photographed at NAS Cecil Field. Its Air Force serial number was 52-410.

-Robert E. Kling

Original Cold War color-- Photo by Robert Kling