It has been almost ten years since the greatest attack asset ever built for the United States Navy thundered off carrier decks forever. In 1997, the last of the Grumman A-6 Intruders in service were retired after two wars and 34 years with the fleet.

Since there is currently no good FS2004 model of the Intruder it's hoped that this article might inspire one of the many talented designers to create one.

The A-6A Intruder was the result of a late 1950's need for a jet-powered replacement for the aging Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. The result was a design proposal from Grumman named G-128. The design was only beautiful to those who flew it, those BN's who rode it into battle, and those of us who admired the last true attack jet this country's Navy has had. The plane was manned by a crew of two, a pilot who flew the aircraft, and a Bombardier/Navigator (BN) who operated the radar, computer, and other weapons systems. Sitting side by side, with the pilot on the left, and the BN on the right, allowed for an unusual level of crew coordination to be possible, usually only found on the Air Force's strategic bombers.

At the heart of the A-6A's all-weather attack capability was the rotary drum computer, and the Digital Integrated Attack/Navigation Equipment (DIANE). It was this computer which usually dropped the bombs in the A-6's. The computer, when it could get a ground lock, would compute how the bombs would fall, depending on the type of ordnance, and automatically drop them as long as the pilot held the commit trigger on the stick down. If the computer failed, or the pilot wanted to manually drop the bombs, he'd hit the pickle button on the stick.

The airframe was of typical metal construction. The mid-set wings were swept back at a 25-degree angle and were fitted with full span leading edge slats and full-span trailing edge fowler flaps. These high lift devices, paired with the already broad wing, gave a 'dirty' stall speed of 98 knots, with a comfortable carrier approach speed of about 118 knots. At the extreme tips of the swept wings were speed brakes. The wingtips were hinged to open upwards and downwards into the slipstream to provide drag to slow down, or to allow high power settings during carrier approaches. These were designed and fitted after the original speed brakes, behind the engine exhausts, were found to stall the horizontal stabilizer at any speed or angle of attack they were deployed at. In the original prototypes, the tailpipes pivoted downward to increase the short-field performance, but it was found that they weren't effective enough to justify the weight penalty they presented.

On the top of the nose, forward of the cockpit, there was a fixed in-flight refueling probe for use with the Navy's hose and drogue system of refueling. Two Pratt & Whitney J52 turbojets were fed through large cheek-mounted intakes and exhausted through two short tailpipes just aft of the wing trailing edge.

The bomber had five weapons stations total, with the possibility of fitting a Multiple Ejector Rack (MER) capable of holding up to six 500 lb bombs, usually with snakeye fins. With all five pylons filled with bombs, the aircraft could carry thirty of the Mk. 82 Snakeye. Usually however, the centerline station was reserved for a 2000-pound belly tank, leaving four free for weapons.

The A-6 could carry many different types of weapons throughout its career, but it was most often used with Snakeyes of different weights and the famous Rockeye cluster bomb. Laser guided bombs and the anti-ship missile harpoon could also be carried.

The Grumman A-6A Intruder joined the Navy in 1963, flying off the decks of aircraft carriers. The jet's first action would be seen in a small country in Southeast Asia in a raging civil war between a communist north and a democratic south. Flying from carriers in the Tonkin Gulf, Intruders began to pound power plants, roads, bridges and anything else they were allowed to, usually at night and alone. The aircraft carried no defensive weapons and did not have a gun. As the Navy's only all-weather attack plane, the Intruder saw a lot of action over Vietnam.

Unfortunately, due to the newness and complexity of the DIANE system, the Intruders faced significant 'down time' when the aircraft's systems had problems, which precluded its use until fixed.

During the war in Vietnam, two new A-6 variants were produced. The A-6B was a dedicated SAM suppression aircraft, which fired the famous Shrike, and lesser-known Standard Anti-Radiation Missile (STARM) against radars and SAM sites, which made up Vietnam's air defenses. The A-6C TRIM was an Intruder that was modified to spot and bomb targets traveling up and down the Ho Chi Minh trail. The TRIM pod (Trails/Roads Interdiction Multisensor), a predecessor to the TRAM pod found on late-model A-6E's, was a system, which allowed the A-6C to spot vehicles on the Ho Chi Minh trail. Few of these were ever produced, but they did lead the way to an important addition to the A-6's systems; the TRAM pod, which we'll discuss in a moment. The KA-6D was a dedicated fleet tanker aircraft.

The definitive attack version of the Intruder was the A-6E that entered service in 1970. The E model replaced the A-6A's rotary drum computer with a solid-state computer that was much more reliable, and this eased many of the maintenance problems faced by A-6 squadrons. Many of the avionics were also changed and enhanced, leading to a much more capable airplane. The TRAM modification to the Intruder added a small round turret under the nose, forward of the nose gear. This was the external part of the Target Recognition and Attack Multisensor, which would allow the A-6 to continue to be useful in the battlefield until its retirement.

After the A-6E's experience in the Persian Gulf War, the Navy contracted Boeing to re-wing the Intruders with new, composite wings to prolong their service life. This was part of the A-6E SWIF mod, which reshaped the wing slightly, added Automatic Carrier Landing capabilities to the jet, and revamped the avionics. Almost immediately after the gulf war, however, the Intruder began to face retirement. The A-6E aircraft were being flown to Davis-Monthan almost as fast as they could be re-winged. By 1997, the last Intruder had been retired. The last ball call by an A-6 was recorded as being this:

"505, Intruder Ball, 6.0, FAG's have the con"
(FAG's=Fighter/Attack Guy's)

Some notes about the cockpit picture. The landing gear handle (lower left) is in the "Emergency Extension" position because the knob is rotated 90 degrees and pulled out from its normal position. The plastic in front of the instruments is because this picture came from a museum bird. Normally, there would be a hood shielding the radar scope and other displays on the BN's side of the cockpit from extraneous light, but that is missing on this aircraft.

Grumman tried to update the Intruder again for the Navy by the A-6F mod which would re-wing the airplane, again revamp the avionics to the latest standard, and replace the loud, gas-guzzling J52 turbojets with newer more efficient turbofan engines, and add two more wing pylons for a total of seven. This proposal was turned down due to cost, so Grumman offered the A-6G, which was the same as the F, except with the same J52's. Once again they were turned down. The Intruder was gone.

There is no replacement for the Intruder. Its bombing capabilities were partially picked up by the F-14D, but the ability to haul large bombloads over long distances is now a ability which today's carriers don't have, even more so after the complete retirement of the F-14 Tomcat in 2007. The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is in no way a suitable replacement for any aircraft on today's carriers. They lack the range, speed, capability and load carrying ability of the F-14, A-6, or even the first generation F/A-18 Hornet. The carrier's now need more gas aloft in the form of S-3 tankers, or Air Force tankers.

The Carrier Air Wings which protected our country in the 1960's and 1970's were the best there were or ever will be, and I'm proud to have been a part of them flying in (or rather jumping out of) the world's best helicopters; the SH-2 Seasprite, and the SH-3. The Phantoms, Intruders, Skyhawks and Crusaders, Corsair II's, Skywarriors, Vigilanties and Hawkeyes were all designed with one goal in mind and at that goal they excelled. To use the an old expression, the Carrier Battle Groups of the 1960's and 1970's could truly kick ass and take names, and now I fear that this capability is gone with the retirement of the last two true Navy airplanes; the F-14 Tomcat, and the A-6 Intruder.

Want to Fly A Virtual Intruder?

While there is no FS2004 model available, flightsimmers using FS2002 and earlier have a variety of Intruders to fly, easily downloadable from our file library.

To view available A-6's: Click here

For those wishing to try the Intruder's replacement, there are also a number of good Super Hornets available.

To view available F/A-18Es: Click here

Flightsimmers also have a variety of Tomcats to fly, easily downloadable from our file library.

To view available F-14s: Click here

Evan Levesque
evanlevesque@msn.com