The Electronic Warfare Plane Designed To Jam Enemy Signals – SlashGear

Ravens, of course, are well known as the highly-intelligent tricksters of the animal kingdom. EF-111A Raven, then, is a very appropriate name for a warplane that had a unique role: a mobile signal jammer. The story of the Raven begins with that of the Aardvark. The F-111 Aardvark was a very different animal, both literally and figuratively. 

Per Imperial War Museums curator Emily Charles, the Aardvark was “produced in the 1960s … designed to be a fighter for the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy.” The project cost a cool $75 million, but in the end, the F-111 wasn’t suited to the role it was intended for. It was ultimately used by the United States Air Force as a bomber, and a potent one at that. 

Charles goes on to explain how it earned its nickname: “its ability to fly close to the ground with terrain-tracking radar gave its name ‘the Aardvark,’ an African mammal which sniffs along the ground hunting for food.” The EF-111A Raven did not have the formidable ordinance that its ground-sniffing predecessor did. It was created in the following decade, it seems, as a modified F-111 with a more subtle yet equally potentially powerful objective: jamming crucial enemy communication and navigation.