In regards to ECM, the Navy, and the Prowler. Thank god they retired the Prowler.
The "Super Hornet" is capable of carrying several kinds of ECM pods, as well as the full compliment of associated weaponry. I don't know anything about capabilities or power output, but it was supposed to take on some this role just as it's supposed to take on some of the role of a KA-6. Having a back-seater, whose sole purpose is SIGINT functions, wastes a significant amount of combat weight. Same thing with a rear seat missile jockey ("night attack" versions of the F-18, mostly employed by Marines).
It would be better to hook SIGINT capabilites up to a satellite connection and have some joker back in Colorado doing all the work while sitting at a desk with a mug of coffee, but that does completely exclude any passive on-site countermeasures. So, I imagine those pods has *lots* of bubble memory -- probably on the order of 3-4 terabytes -- that can be examined after collection. Not quite as fast as real-time, but like I was saying, I don't know the avionics on the E's and F's.
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