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E/A-18 Hornet Photos & Video
- Thread starter Gabe2surf
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Dave Shutter
Registered User
I hear they've been having problems with their wing sections. There's a SLEP program to fix them but they're having trouble getting them all through while meeting deployment schedules. BTW, this is the first definite stuff I've seen about the E/A, have you read anything about what's in the nose?
Obviously it's been a while now that the EA-6B's have had some aging structural issues. A couple years ago, the program office wanted to know if they could extend the life expectancy of the airframe indefinitely by operationally limiting the a/c to 3Gs. That's the program that I worked on. Turns out this past year they've had to replace the center wing portion due to fatigue failure. My memory is not helping here, but I do know that 3 locations on the a/c were being looked at. Were all three in the vicinity of the center wing inner panel? It's your standard 7050/7025 aircraft aluminum being used. If anyone knows about this, please enlighten me! Last week I was told that the A-6's had been limited to 4Gs for the same type problem late in their career.
Obviously it's been a while now that the EA-6B's have had some aging structural issues. A couple years ago, the program office wanted to know if they could extend the life expectancy of the airframe indefinitely by operationally limiting the a/c to 3Gs. That's the program that I worked on. Turns out this past year they've had to replace the center wing portion due to fatigue failure. My memory is not helping here, but I do know that 3 locations on the a/c were being looked at. Were all three in the vicinity of the center wing inner panel? It's your standard 7050/7025 aircraft aluminum being used. If anyone knows about this, please enlighten me! Last week I was told that the A-6's had been limited to 4Gs for the same type problem late in their career.
Sounds like they need to get that EA-18 on line pronto! What are they waiting for! That is ridiculous that they would have to limit the aircraft to a certain amount of G's. Try telling that to a guy that is trying to shoot down a radar site with Sams shooting at him. I can't believe that! The big wigs better start waking up!!! Am I crazy or am I making at least a little bit of sense? I'd like to see an O-6 or O-7 go shoot down radar sites knowing his aircraft is structurally limited the way you guys are saying it is.
Randy Haskin
Registered User
quote:
Try telling that to a guy that is trying to shoot down a radar site with Sams shooting at him. I can't believe that!
Realize that Prowlers aren't doing their job from *inside* the SAM threat rings -- it's not at all like Flight Of The Intruder where they're out trolling for SA-2 launches. Most of their work is done from a comfortable racetrack orbit away from the target areas.
Try telling that to a guy that is trying to shoot down a radar site with Sams shooting at him. I can't believe that!
Realize that Prowlers aren't doing their job from *inside* the SAM threat rings -- it's not at all like Flight Of The Intruder where they're out trolling for SA-2 launches. Most of their work is done from a comfortable racetrack orbit away from the target areas.
Paul Burke
Registered User
Back around '96-'97 they began to place the G limits on the Prowler starting at 4G's. Their had been a rash of birds that were coming back with cracked keels. There is no way to repair that type of damage. For about a 6 month period not long after that every squadron started coming up with some major slat problems. I remember having to rig slats on every single bird we had because of barberpole gripes. The ones we got back from AIMD had pieces that didn't even match up to the wing. It was weird. The gremlins mark had definitely been made.
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