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She sure is a pretty bird. That there is one of the most highly demanded aircraft in the inventory. So much so they are govt property, no navy, marine, etc....
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Heh, I'll take a pic when it gets here. VAQ-141 is right next to me in my hanger. Hell, I'll go out and look for it tomorrow; it might be here already.
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Hey Unknown1Sailor you up in Whidbey huh. I did my Framp up there on EA-6B's but I spent my time in the Corps working on A6-E's out of MCAS Cherry Point, NC |
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E = Electronic A = Attack
Tactical Electronic Warfare In flight front-line jammers. Nothing goes airborne for an attack unless there are Prowlers in front.....
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Ok, thanks. Do they ever drop bombs and fire missles? Or do they just use electronic warfare? |
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Sure do. I have a buddy who has video of his aircraft firing HARM missiles during OIF. Good stuff! |
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Niiiiice!
They probably carry some sidewinders and AMRAAM's too for defernse, ya think? |
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Nope.
They have flares and chaff for protection. The fighters cover their asses.
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Remember that thread "if you could buy one plane for $1..."?
THIS would be it. I LOVE the A-6 airframe! |
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The Intruders were always my favorite Navy aircraft.
The Prowlers look a little funkier, but carry on the tradition very nicely. |
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No, they do not have the fire-control hardware on board to support AAMs.. Never did, even as the A-6... FUGLY plane, but they work wonders at what they do... The EF-111 was better looking & more survivable... |
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Probably a nOOb question but why would it need flares and chaff for protection when it can jam the enemies radar and communications? |
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Those guys ROCK!!!!!!
Always thought Prowler/SAM fights were just about the most critical. All weather kick ass airframes... |
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The 3 person crew complement on a EA-6B is a pilot, co-pilot and an electronics warfare officer?
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I was always under the impression there were 4
crewmembers in the Prowler. |
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Flares confuse infra red homing missiles. Chaff is for any radar frequency that may not have gotten jammed by the jammers. |
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4 person crew, only one pilot. The rest are NFOs. |
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That's an old jet. Too bad we couldn't find a use for the F-4.
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1 pilot, left front. 1 ECW officer, right front, who is also a navigator, and comm officer. 2 ECW officers in the back. |
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The NFOs are Electronic Counter-Measure Officers... ECMO. Pronounced "ek-moe"
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That is interesting. Boy that is a real complicated piece of electronic hardware. Can you please very basically describe what all of the ECMOs do? |
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They probably didn't use any of the parts from the Prowler I watched crash in Sequim about 20 years ago. Left a crater about the size of a football field. Crewmen all bailed out safely.
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Communications jamming, navigation, radar jamming, finding targets, etc. Hopefully there is a Prowler bubba on here, or KA3 knows some stuff too. I only really know what my ECMO friend tells me. |
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I saw some footage of a bad cat shot of a prowler once. All four of those guys came shooting out of there like balls from a roman candle (only faster). |
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Haha yup. Weird isn't it? I went through the ejection seat class 2 weeks ago. Man I hope I never have to use that. |
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3 person crew, the 4th is just along for the ride....
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Haha, that certainly is a NFO community. Gotta be a bit nerve racking training the pilots. There is no trainer version. One stick! |
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I left out the "from" But you could tell none of them bothered to say "huh?" When the pilot said eject. IIRC most of them landed back on the flight deck (somewhere) |
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Most likely a command ejection. One handle pull, all 4 go. |
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They crashed an EA-6B out near Quillayute in 1990.
Departed flight at 23,000, the crew ejected at about 18,000, the plane went in nose down into an area that had just been clear-cut. The hole was less than 20 yards wide, the plane went into the ground about 35 feet, the largest piece in the hole was the core of the one engine. One of the ECMO's had all the fingers cut off of his right hand when he went out because he was not properly situated. The wonders of command ejection....
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Do you guys remember the video when the carrier deck guy gets sucked into the intake? Its amazing that he survived. Ruined the engine though.
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They always tell all the studs here about the crew that ejected at something like 600 knots up there in Whidbey I believe, some years ago. All 4 got out, only 1 survived, and pretty much broke every bone in his body. Know about that one at all? |
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The pilot drives the bus.
The right seater (ECMO 1) answers the phone, reads the map and runs the comm jamming gear. The two back seaters run the jammers. There is a lot more info here: www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/ea-6-upgrades.htm My squadron was flying off of the Stennis during OEF / Operation Anaconda. They didn't do a lot of jamming and only carried HARMs as couple of times during the entire cruise. They did give the USQ-113 system a good workout though.
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Nope, but I can look at the Prowler memorial and probably figure it out.
The first time I was stationed at Whidbey I saw two A-6E's and an EA-6B crash, 1 on the runway 1 during an air show practice and the EA-6B out over the Puget Sound. I also participated in the crash recoverys of the EA-6B that went down on the Olympic Penninsula and an A-6E that crashed into the Columbia River (body recovery, never want to do that again). Plus I also helped out a lot of A-6 and EA-6B maintenance recovery crews when we would transport them all across the west coast to recover broke-dick Intruders and Prowlers....
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The one I saw crash was definitely in the early 80s. I was sitting in a high school math class when we heard a loud very unnatural high pitched whine pass overhead and looked out the window to see an airplane leaving a trail of smoke travel by and crash about 5 miles away. We could see an explosion and the blast rattled the windows of the school.If I recall correctly it was later reported that the crewmen had all bailed out safely although they were scattered all over the place. All in all, a rather odd diversion from the typical boredoms of high school. |
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