How Navy Hornets Hunt Radars Iran Already Switched Off — 150 Miles, $1.4M, 0 Misses

How Navy Hornets Hunt Radars Iran Already Switched Off — 150 Miles, $1.4M, 0 Misses
On January 12, 2026, a US Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet at Point Mugu Sea Range fired two live AGM-88G AARGM-ER anti-radar missiles in a heavily jammed GPS environment. Both rounds hit. NAVAIR confirmed the test 15 days later. That qualification flight settled the question that has haunted Russian-pattern air defense doctrine since 1985 — does the new American anti-radar missile still find the target when the radar shuts down.
This is iran news the way the surface-to-air operator inside Iran's IADS sees it. The Russian-pattern survival rule — cut power when an inbound HARM lights up your emitter — held for 40 years. It defeated the AGM-88B, the AGM-88C, and largely defeated the AGM-88E. It does not defeat the AGM-88G.
Inside this video: the full architecture of the Navy's new anti-radar capability, the procurement timeline ($2.43 billion, 435 rounds through FY26, IOC September 2026), the Houthi engagement on February 24, 2024 that proved the millimeter-wave seeker hits non-emitting targets (USS Eisenhower CVN-69, EA-18G Growler vs. Mi-24/35), and the March 2, 2026 CENTCOM release showing an Iranian Tor-M1 air defense system destroyed in real-world combat. Plus the broader pattern: Iran's HQ-9 long-range SAM also failed to protect its own air defenses in the same news cycle.
We walk the three guidance modes — passive anti-radiation, GPS/INS, millimeter-wave terminal seeker — and explain why each one closes a different geometry against Iran's Russian-Chinese hybrid IADS. We cover the Growler-Hornet pair operating concept, the F-35A/C internal-bay carriage, and why the strategic pause in fiscal year 2027 procurement does not affect the September 2026 IOC date.
This is part of an ongoing Anchor Watch capability series tracking the architecture of US Navy and US Air Force operations in the Persian Gulf. Recent uploads cover the Navy Growler electronic warfare profile and the staged-on-deck capability aboard USS Tripoli LHA-7. Next upload: Inside Operation Epic Fury — the B-2 Spirit bombers Iran can't see, dropping from Diego Garcia at 2,358 miles.
Sources used and cross-referenced for this video: NAVAIR official release on the AGM-88G live-fire test (January 27, 2026); the U.S. Navy fiscal year 2027 budget documentation; Naval News Sea Air Space 2026 coverage; The War Zone reporting on AARGM-ER IOC reaffirmation (April 28, 2026); CENTCOM official imagery release on Iranian Tor-M1 destruction (March 2, 2026); and Northrop Grumman public technical specifications for the AGM-88G airframe.
If you operate, build, plan against, or analyze Russian-pattern integrated air defense networks, save this video — the timing of the January Point Mugu test against the Houthi engagement record and the Iran kinetic confirmation is the only public-record sequence that establishes when emission discipline ceased to be a survivable doctrine.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Introduction
1:20 What the Missile Does
4:50 The Procurement Record and January Test
8:20 Why the Architecture Beats the Architecture
10:50 What This Means for the Strait of Hormuz

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