USAF showcases EA-37B Compass Call to NATO allies during European tour
January 29, 2026
The US Air Force (USAF) has dispatched a new EA-37B Compass Call to Ramstein Air Base in Germany to showcase the specialised electronic warfare (EW) jet’s capabilities and introduce deployed units and airmen, as well as NATO allies, to the new platform.
This deployment comes as the EA-37B prepares to replace the USAF’s ageing fleet of turboprop-driven EC-130H Compass Call aircraft, which entered operational service in the early 1980s.
The aircraft’s arrival at Ramstein was initially marred by speculation that the USAF’s newest EW jet would subsequently head to the Middle East to support other US military assets in the region amid rising tensions between Iran and the US. However, US Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA) was quick to confirm that this was not the case.
USAFE-AFAFRICA says the EA-37B’s first appearance in Europe will take the form of a planned “roadshow”, rather than a permanent deployment, with the aircraft visiting three key locations to introduce the new electronic warfare platform to operators and allies.
As part of the tour, the Compass Call successor is scheduled to visit Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany and RAF Mildenhall in the UK, marking its first exposure to airmen, operational units and NATO partners within the USAFE area of responsibility. The command said the European visits build on two earlier roadshows conducted in the Indo-Pacific region.
The roadshow is intended to support a smoother transition towards Initial Operational Capability and broader service entry, as the ageing EC-130H fleet is progressively withdrawn. By operating from multiple bases and alongside different units, USAFE-AFAFRICA says the EA-37B will demonstrate its ability to integrate across a range of mission sets, reinforcing its role as a flexible, high-value asset for joint and coalition operations.
“This is the aircraft’s first appearance in the European theatre,” the command noted, adding that the tour highlights the platform’s importance as a key node in future multinational electronic warfare operations.
Tracking the EA-37B Compass Call from Arizona to Europe
Operated by the 55th Wing’s 55th Electronic Combat Group (ECG) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (AFB), the new EA-37B (serial 17-5579/‘DM’) departed its Arizona home base for this deployment during the early hours of 24 January.
After an overnight stop at the L F Wade International Airport in Bermuda, the Compass Call proceeded on its journey to Germany, where it landed at Ramstein at roughly 2030hrs (local time) on 25 January.
The EA-37B Compass Call II is on the scene in Europe and differs from the EA-18G Growler.
— realPATRiOT 🫡🇺🇸 (@realP4TRi0T) January 26, 2026
❎️The Growler is no joke while it focuses on jamming and electronic attack + Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD).
❎️The EA-37B focuses primarily on the disruption of enemy… https://t.co/j15u5ppW0j pic.twitter.com/Rq1pCuoHYW
On 26 January, the USAF opened up the aircraft for tours for both deployed and allied personnel at Ramstein. Several images have been published showing airmen from the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) and Turkish Air Force (TuAF) – both of which are key NATO allies – receiving a tour of the EA-37B.
The following day – on 27 January – the Compass Call made the short flight from Ramstein to Spangdahlem, departing the former at approximately 1029hrs (local) and arriving at the latter some 23 minutes later (at 1052hrs).
It is assumed that the EA-37B’s crew again provided tours of the aircraft to help local deployed and allied personnel grow more familiar with the type. At the time of writing, the aircraft had yet to visit RAF Mildenhall.
EA-37B: Recapitalising the USAF’s Compass Call fleet
The story of the EA-37B begins in September 2017, when the USAF awarded L3Harris a contract to replace its veteran EC-130Hs with a new EW platform based on the Gulfstream G550 business jet.
The G550 is driven by a pair of Rolls-Royce BR700 turbofan engines, allowing it to reach speeds of up to Mach 0.85 at 41,000ft (12,000m) and providing it with a range of up to 6,750nmi (7,770 miles or 12,500km). The first of the type was delivered to the US Air Force in 2024.
To fulfil the Compass Call mission set, these G550s have been extensively modified with specialised EW equipment that has been provided by both L3Harris and the UK-based BAE Systems. The heavily modified nature of this aircraft is especially noticeable from the outside.
The aircraft features large ‘cheek’ fairings on both sides of its fuselage, leveraging the same configuration that has been applied to the G550 Conformal Airborne Early Warning (CAEW) aircraft that have been developed for Israel and Italy, among others.
While the EA-37B is smaller than the EC-130H, much of the latter’s mission systems have been reintegrated onto the type’s G550-based successor.
In addition, the EA-37B has also received BAE Systems’ Small Adaptive Bank of Electronic Resources (SABER) technology, as well as Network Centric Collaborative Targeting (NCCT) systems.
The EA-37B will replace the EC-130H on the Compass Call mission
For the Compass Call mission, the EA-37B will replace the EC-130H in providing crucial stand-off jamming support in support of US and coalition military operations in various theatres across the world.
The platform will also provide a secondary intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) role thanks to its ability to detect, track and locate a host of different emitter types. The type’s electronic attack (EA) designation, which replaced the previous EC-37B name, also indicates that the EA-37B will boast some attack capabilities in the future.
“One of the most important aspects of success in conflict is information superiority,” says Capt Tyler Laska, an EA-37B pilot with the 55th ECG’s 41st Electronic Combat Squadron (ECS) ‘Scorpions’. “Every moment of hesitation that we can implant into an adversary’s decision-making process increases the survivability of our men and women on the leading edge of every domain.”
In total, the USAF intends to purchase ten EA-37Bs to replace its veteran EC-130Hs, of which roughly four examples were reported as still being operated by the USAF in 2025.
As of May 2025, five of the ten EA-37Bs ordered had been delivered to the USAF. Italy has also ordered two EA-37B mission system packages, which will be integrated onto two G550s and eventually operated by the Italian Air Force (ItAF).
Featured image: USAF
