The Navy seems fairly convinced they need more Growlers:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/new-growler-construction-may-depend-on-upcoming-navy-exercise/article_d1c75fb7-aed3-507b-a951-11c9e6554f81.html

What does the Air Force use to fill this role?

It used to be the EF-111... I think one of the members here used to drive one.  

I'm not sure what they use now.  Some sort of UAV maybe?  That seems like a very suitable role for them.

They use Navy and Marine Corps aircraft.

Unfortunately outsourcing has been the answer.  Do we have any pilots flying your Growlers like we used to have with the Prowlers?

They use Navy and USMC Growlers and Prowlers (lol it rhymes) ever since they got rid of the EF-111s.

efb

EC-130H and they have ECM pods that can strap on to an F-16.   I think Shaw has a fighter group that did this in conjunction with SCANG out of McEntire just up the road from Shaw.  They worked as teams in Iraq.  Not sure if they have the same capabilities as the Growler though.

F-16CJ

The USAF doesn't operate their own EA aircraft and hasn't since the Clinton administration made the AF phase out the EF-111 Spark-vark.

The decision to retire the EF-111 and F-4G platforms hurt the USAF's ability to perform the SEAD mission.  The F-16 has proven adequate for the task, but the F-4G/EF-111 team is hard to beat.  Both aircraft had about the same cruise/top speeds and altitudes.  The enemy would light up the F-4G, who would then go off to attack while the EF-111 jammed.  The F-4G was purpose-rebuilt for SEAD, having 3 axis threat radar detection, a backseater to run the electronics while the pilot flew, and the ability to carry a greater load of SEAD ordnance than an F-16, while still carrying self protection AIM-7 and AIM-9 missiles.

Grumman crammed a lot of capability into their EF-111 Spark-vark conversions.  These a/c could do everything the EA-6 could, but with only two crewmembers and much higher speed and performance than the EA-6.  Unlike the EA-6, the Spark-vark was unarmed and depended solely on aircraft and electronic attack performance as defense.

Stated above. When the Navy took over the mission from the AF we stood up additional "expeditionary" squadrons that deployed to shore locations around the world. I was a part of that support for a number of years.

Former ALQ-99 guy.

 

Nope. The USAF has no real electronic attack capability.  We are retiring the EC-130s as well.  The F-16CJ is very shitty at destructive SEAD compared to the F-4G.  Boeing (actually McD at the time) offered us a F-15E variant with dedicated F-4G type sensors (all aspect multi-band) and a jamming system equivalent to the EF-111 but we don't have the funding for it, or an urgent need, since we rely on our gold-winged brothers in the USN/USMC for the mission.  Likewise the USN retired their EA3B and KA6 with no replacement, and suck on the not-so-gentle teat of our KC-135s and KC-10s now.

really?