GLORY DAYS// EA-6A IN VIETNAM
Following the US Marine Corps’ farewell to the EA-6B Prowler, we look at the origins of this electronic attack aircraft, which lie in a derivative of the A-6 Intruder, and which proved its worth time after time during the war in Vietnam.
THE VIETNAM WAR is often remembered as a conflict in which technologically inferior opposition defeated the most advanced military in the world. There is only a limited — if crude — element of truth to this, as Americans often found themselves at a distinct disadvantage against some enemy weapons systems. The skies over North Vietnam were perhaps the clearest example of this, with strategic targets defended by the latest and most lethal radar-guided air defense systems the Soviet Union produced at the time.
When US President Lyndon Johnson authorized the ‘Rolling Thunder’ bombing campaign over North Vietnam in March 1965, US Air Force and US Navy strike aircraft tasked with carrying out this bombing were ill-equipped to counter North Vietnam’s air defenses, which included cutting-edge Soviet early warning radars, radar-guided surfaceto- air missiles (SAMs) and anti-aircraft artillery (AAA). At the time, the US Marine Corps possessed the o…
