The last of the Air Force’s longest-deployed airplanes finally retired earlier this month, as the last in-service EC-130H Compass Call electronic warfare plane took its final flight over Arizona. For its final on-duty sortie, it shared the sky with the modern jet that is replacing it.
An EC-130 Compass Call from the 55th Electronic Combat Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, flew side by side with an EA-37B that will replace it at the 55th Electronic Combat Group on a “fini flight” for the older plane.
The Compass Call served as one of the Air Force’s most secretive platforms. Along with their role jamming enemy radar, the EC-130 Compass Calls at Davis-Monthan hold a perhaps unbreakable record as the service’s longest continuously deployed unit. The 41st Electronic Combat Squadron deployed its first EC-130H to the Afghanistan theater around Thanksgiving 2002, according to an Air Force release, and the unit stayed deployed until November 2021.
“In that time, we have flown 14,753 sorties and 90,364.4 combat flight hours,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. John McCoy, 55th Electronic Combat Group deputy commander when the unit finally returned in 2021. “Of the 975 Airmen currently assigned to the 55th ECG, only 61 were on active duty when the 19-year streak began.”
The staid appearance of Compass Call EC-130Hs, which appear little different from stock cargo movers, belies its long-time status among the Air Force’s most secretive platforms. Built to fly near enemy air defenses, the plane is packed with sensors and jammers that attempt to locate and blind opposing fire control systems.
As the Air Force said in its photo release on the “fini flight,” the EC-130 and its replacement have capabilities that enable “U.S. and coalition forces to disrupt, deny and degrade adversary command and control networks.” In practical terms, the nine members of its 13-person crew operate a range of electronic warfare capabilities, including early warning radars as well as jamming systems. It is designed not just to pick up enemy communications and sensors but to take them out. Like other electronic warfare planes, the Compass Call is a part of suppression of enemy air defenses (or SEAD) missions.
The plane entered service with the Air Force in 1981, but has been phased out of service over the last five years. Taking their place are the EA-37 airframes; the first EA-37 arrived in 2024. Whereas the older electronic warfare plane was derived from a cargo plane, the newer one is drawn from the Gulfstream G550 business aircraft.
The EC-130H has been a part of U.S. military endeavors since the late 1980s, deploying during Operation Just Cause in Panama. It also flew during the Gulf War, NATO operations in the Balkans and in several conflicts in the Middle East and Central Asia during the Global War on Terror. Despite its phasing out, the EC-130Hs that were still in service were still flying. One was flying in the Caribbean late last year, flying to Puerto Rico as part of the buildup of U.S. military forces in the latter months of 2025, prior to the attack on Venezuela.
The EA-37B improves on the EC-130H. It can fly faster and farther. The antenna systems housed in its fuselage give its electronic warfare capabilities a longer range than aircraft such as the Navy’s EA-18G Growler. It took part in Operation Epic Fury against Iran earlier this year.
A formal retirement ceremony for the EC-130H is planned for Friday, Sept. 18 at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
