The United States must destroy Iran’s air defense network before it can begin major air operations in the country. Fortunately, it has the tools to do it.

The largest US military air and naval armada since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is currently gathering off the coast of Iran.

As negotiations with Tehran continue in an attempt to find a diplomatic solution to the ongoing tensions, the US military is preparing for a strike that could annihilate the Iranian military. But to achieve this, US aircraft and ships would need to penetrate—and likely destroy—Iran’s air defense umbrella. For this, it will need specialized electronic warfare aircraft—of which it has two in active service.

EA-18G and F-35: The US Military’s Two Electronic Warfare Jets  

The US military has two main fighter jets that can conduct electronic warfare: the EA-18G Growler, a dedicated electronic warfare jet; and the F-35 Lightning II, a fifth-generation multirole fighter that can conduct electronic warfare as part of its wide range of capabilities.  

Aircraft	EA-18G Growler	F-35 Lightning II (F-35A)
Year Introduced	2009	2015 (F-35B)
Number Built	172	1,300+ (all variants)
Length	60 ft 1 in (18.3 m)	51 ft 5 in (15.7 m)
Wingspan	44 ft 8.5 in (13.62 m)	35 ft (11 m)
Weight (MTOW)	66,000 lb (29,964 kg)	65,918 lb (29,900 kg)
Engine(s)	Two General Electric F414-GE-400 afterburning turbofans (14,400 lbf each)	One Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 afterburning turbofan (28,000 lbf)
Top Speed	1,190 mph (1,900 km/h)	1,228 mph (1,976 km/h)
Range	1,458 mi (2,346 km)	1,700 mi (2,800 km)
Service Ceiling	~50,000 ft (15,240 m)	~50,000 ft (15,240 m)
Loadout	AESA radars; targeting systems + jamming pods; 17,750 lb (8,050 kg) total payload capacity, including AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles	AESA radars; electro-optical targeting system and countermeasures; 18,000 lb (8,200 kg) total payload capacity, including wide variety of bombs and missiles
Aircrew	2	1

The EA-18G Growler packs a robust electronic warfare suite, which includes the AN/ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammers, AN/ALQ-218 receiver suite, ALQ-99 tactical jamming pods, communications jammers, signal intelligence sensors, and advanced datalinks. 

The F-35 Lightning II packs the AN/ASQ-239 electronic warfare suite, which is the most advanced system of its type, providing the fifth-generation stealth fighter jet with 360-degree situational awareness and end-to-end capabilities.

The two planes differ in strengths. While the F-35 Lightning II has a much more powerful radar with the ability to locate and track enemy forces, jam radars, and disrupt attacks, the EA-18G Growler has the benefit of having an experienced electronic warfare officer dedicated to finding, tracking, jamming, and defeating an adversary’s electronic systems while the pilot focuses on flying the aircraft.

Nor are the two jets likely to experience serious opposition inside Iran. The country’s air defense system was seriously damaged in June 2025, first by Israeli aircraft during Operation Rising Lion and then by the US military during Operation Midnight Hammer. In the roughly nine months since, Tehran has had some time to rebuild its capabilities and prepare for further fighting, but it has had few pathways available to replace the air defense systems that Israel and the United States destroyed.  

It would fall onto the EA-18G Growler and F-35 Lightning II to reduce Iran’s networked air defense umbrella to nothing more than a threadbare net. Those aircraft recently did the same to Venezuela’s Russian-made air defense systems during Operation Absolute Resolve, the raid on Caracas on January 3 that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

How an Electronic Warfare Raid on Iran Might Work

In a potential conflict with Iran, the US military would use electronic warfare aircraft to neutralize the Iranian air defense systems and allow other combat aircraft and missiles to strike their targets unopposed.  

F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets would very likely be the first in, using their advanced avionics to create a comprehensive map of the Iranian air defense umbrella. The F-35 can share that mapping in real time through Link 16 and Multifunction Advanced Data Link across the strike force, including combat aircraft, missiles, and warships.  

EA-18G Growlers would be close behind, using their jamming equipment to intercept and drown out Iranian radar signals across multiple frequencies. Through this jamming, the EA-18Gs would present Iranian air defense operators with a deadly dilemma: to maintain situational awareness, they would have to be able to have any situational awareness of the battlefield, and they would have to increase their radars’ emission power. But doing so would immediately reveal their exact geocoordinates to the Growlers and their AGM-88E HARM anti-radiation missiles.  

These mission sets are called Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses/Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD/DEAD) and are designed to neutralize the ground-based radar installations and missile batteries that represent an adversary’s outer layer of defense.  

If performed correctly—as it was performed in Venezuela a few weeks ago—the Iranian integrated air defense umbrella would be reduced to isolated weapon systems that cannot communicate with one another and cannot see anything before their destruction in short order.  

About the Author: Stavros Atlamazoglou  

Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations and a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ). He holds a BA from the Johns Hopkins University and an MA from the Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His work has been featured in Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP. 

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