Talk:EA-6B Prowler

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[edit] Military plane crashes in northeast Oregon

02:45 PM MST on Friday, March 3, 2006

By kgw.com and AP Staff

PENDLETON, Ore. -- An EA-6 military surveillance plane from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station has crashed in northeast Oregon, but authorities said no one was seriously injured.


Federal Avaiation Administration officials said the plane that went down was an EA-6 Prowler, similiar to the one shown in this military photo.

Witnesses saw all four aircrew ejected and their parachutes deployed, according to Umatilla County emergency services, and the military confirmed that there were no fatalities.

Authorities said four people were transported to St. Anthony's Hospital in Pendleton for treatment of unknown injuries.

The aircraft, attached to the Electronic Attack Squadron 135, was flying a routine training mission when the mishap occurred, according to Kim Martin, a spokeswoman for NAS Whidbey Island.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, she said.

"Something caused the plane to go down, we don’t know what it is," said Pete Wells, public information officer for Umatilla County.

A second EA-6 Prowler plane was flying in the area, but was not involved in the incident, he said.

Cheryl Seigal, of the Umatilla County Emergency Management, said the crash site had been sealed off and a no-fly zone requested at 3500 feet.

The emergency operations center in Pendleton also had been activated.

The Prowler aircraft provides protection for strike aircraft, ground troops and ships by jamming enemy radar, electronic data links and communications, Martin said.

The plane originated from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, and was believed to be headed to a Navy practice facility in Boardman, where military bombers and fighter planes are stored.

The crash happened just before 11:30 a.m. in West Juniper Canyon at Dorran Road, in the northern part of Umatilla County, authorities said. http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-mar0306-ore_plane_crash.8096b995.html

[edit] Queer

Navy Prowler squadrons go by the acronym VAQ; for Marine squadrons, VMAQ. Q denotes the different mission of these squadrons from the bomb-only role of VA or VMA squadrons. So the explanation of 'queer' is off.

During my 3 years serving in a VAQ squadron, the pilots generally referred to it as the "station wagon" due to it carrying 4 persons (1 pilot, 3 ECMOs).Cjkporter 21:40, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox or WP:Aircraft's spec template?

Should this article's infobox be converted to WP:Aircraft's specifications template? (Born2flie 07:59, 23 July 2006 (UTC))

Yes. —Joseph/N328KF (Talk) 15:35, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merge

Proposal to merge this article with Advanced Capability EA-6B.

  • Merge: There is really not enough content on the page to warrant having its own article. The program was cancalled in 1995, so there is not going to be any new information forthcoming to significantly alter the current contents. In addition, the program only concerned the EA-6B. The EA-6 article is not all that long, so the additional material won't hurt, and can probably be added intact. - BillCJ 04:18, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

No contest: After 9 days, am proceeding with the merge. - BillCJ 22:47, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Merge completed. - BillCJ 23:15, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] USMC plans

It's been claimed that USMC will use Prowlers until 2019 and get an EW variant of the F/A-35. Is this reasonably correct?

I know the USMC is supposed to use the EA-6B until around that time, but I don't beleive a final decision has been made on what will replace it as yet. If someojne has a source that it's been decided, please post it. - BillCJ 20:31, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Numbers

I'm not sure where the 40 lost a/c came from, but I have found some other information. GAO report number GAO-03-51 entitled 'Electronic Warfare: Comprehensive Strategy Still Needed for Suppressing Enemy Air Defenses' which was released on November 25, 2002 states 122 EA-6B prowlers remained in service following two losses in 2001. Following that report, it is known that at least one other was lost, (a crash in Oregon March 2006). There a a number of sources that agree that the total production run was 170 aircraft. (this one has BuNo's too, this one lists variants and another with BuNos). According to an online AMARC database only 1 has been to AMARC and it was returned to service. So we're missing about 50 aircraft. Based on that information, and the fact that the EA-6B had a very high loss rate in the early 1980s ("the EA-6B aircraft experienced accident rates in fleet operations that were nearly three times higher than all other Navy and Marine aircraft combined."), 40 aircraft lost to crashes is not out of the question, considering that 50 are officially not in service. --Dual Freq 23:00, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

  • This article says they retired 12 in 2004-05 and have 108 operational as of about a month ago. That still leaves 50 lost pre-2001. -Fnlayson 23:17, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, but I'll have to take your word on that as I'm getting "The page you tried to access is only available to paid subscribers." for that page. --Dual Freq 23:26, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Sorry about that. I thought it was public access to that. Global Security says there were 108 in 2006. -Fnlayson 23:59, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

From 1995, "There are 130 EA-6B airframes remaining. 70 have the ICAP II Block 82 configuration, 57 have the ICAP II Block 86/89 configuration and 3 are experimental." That would seem to back the assertion that 40 airframes were lost, but doesn't say why. I'd like to find a cite for the 40 number in the incident section. --Dual Freq 23:33, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Losses

After sifting through Ejection history and Google news, I came up with 40 a/c lost with very little difficulty. Most were from the ejection page and wouldn't include those lost where no ejection occurred. I placed the list here if any one cares. I'd say it confirms that at least 40 aircraft were lost due to various accidents and IMHO the list is still short 10 a/c that probably crashed. --Dual Freq 01:52, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

  • Wow a lot a work. Well done. -Fnlayson 04:16, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

I was wondering it I can use User:Dual_Freq/EF-111#EA-6B_Aircraft_by_MP_and_BN as a List of EA-6B Prowler aircraft article or something similar. Any comments? It would be a shame to waste it, but if its not needed in main space, then I can keep it there. Discovered 45 crashed, all but two associated with BuNo's. --Dual Freq 02:45, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Nice list, but I think the problem with others would be WP;NOT, as "Wikipedia is not a collection of indiscriminate lists." The whole list is not notable, even though some of the aircraft are. I objected when the dude put up a list of every Liberator in RAF service, so I can't really say this one would be OK. However, I won't make a stink or AFD it either! You might try the Airframes Wikia that one of our WP:AIR editors put up for things like this - I think it was Rlandmann, but I'm not certain. - BillCJ 04:08, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
  • I looked through the WP:Air talk archive and found it. Looks like Rlandmann started Airframes. I found an aircraft wiki on that same wikia.com domain too. -Fnlayson 04:31, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, I'll make contact with Rlandmann and see if there is a need for the EF-111 and EA-6 lists there. It's probably a bit overboard for wikipedia anyway. --Dual Freq 21:55, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
List of C-130 Hercules crashes seems to be a similar effort. --Dual Freq 23:37, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ejection

hi! does this aircraft have ejection seats?? --Philtime (talk) 21:03, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, and unfortunately its been used quite a bit since over 40 aircraft have been lost, as noted above. The seats are apparently designated GRU-7EA. --Dual Freq (talk) 21:11, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] EA-6A coverage?

Is this article supposed to cover the A model too? There's more on that in the A-6 Intruder article than here. -Fnlayson (talk) 04:36, 12 June 2008 (UTC)