Midway had only three F/A-18 squadrons and two A-6 squadrons her last 4-5 years in service, when the Phantoms left her airwing so did the Corsairs while she was plussed up an Intruder squadron.
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For A-6 Intruder Lovers.....
- Thread starter Catmando
- Start date
Midway had only three F/A-18 squadrons and two A-6 squadrons her last 4-5 years in service, when the Phantoms left her airwing so did the Corsairs while she was plussed up an Intruder squadron.
Have airwings just gotten significantly smaller since then? This seems like today we would run out of space or ready rooms or both. I realize we have more helos on board now, is that the only thing?
correct,
air wings with a single A-6 squadron typically had 16 jets, but with 2 squadrons it was 10-12 each
CAG 5 on Forrestal had 1 A-6 squadron. CAG 8 on TR had two A-6 squadrons (and 2 F-14 squadrons) but when we deployed they created a Frankenstein airwing called Special MAGTAF and removed one A-6 and one F-14 squadron (both remaining squadrons got bigger) and removed all the S-3s, in order to make room for Marine F-18s (VMFA-312), H-53s, H-1s, and Cobras along with a bunch of invasion ready Marines as well as SEALS.
The idea was that we could invade Bosnia on our own, but I don't know if the experiment was ever repeated, or if it was even deemed a success, we only had 500 or so Marines
Yes, the air wings have morphed over time, but airframes have grown in size. IIRC, we had six SH-3s. A-7s replaced by F/A-18s. Prowlers consisted of four jets and have been replaced by Growler squadrons of 5 or 6.
The airwings have gotten smaller but the airframes are also far more capable and reliable, able to strike targets from a much greater distance and with much greater accuracy. Where full 'Alpha strikes' of 30 or more were used in Korea or Vietnam to try and strike a single target like a bridge or a power plant, often not fully successful the first time around either, now you often have a pair of strike aircraft launch stand-off weapons to do the same. Think The Bridges at Toko-Ri versus Top Gun Maverick, kind of.
I cruised in 1993 and 1995 with Intruders. No KA-6Ds. 14 jet A-6E squadron. I do remember that by the 1995 cruise we were 100% SWIP, composite wing, new CSDs and command eject. In 1993, we only had three jets with command eject.
Trivia. KA-6Ds had green anti collision lights to differentiate them visually from A-6E at night. When the Intruder, got the NVG modded cockpits (green lights), those jets got old KA-6D anti collision lights as well.
True, we have gone from # of aircraft per DMPI to # of DMPIs per aircraft.
Great point, but your final sentence made me think of the admiral in The Bridges of Tojo-Ri asking, instead of, “Where do we get such men?” ,but, “Where do we get such weapons?”
With the exception of of airborne intercepts, no?
Huh been a long time since I’ve seen an A-7. I always assumed it was similarly sized to a Rhino.
The 5-6 VAQ squadrons are relatively recent; my first JO deployment was only 4.
And number of targets per mission vs. missions per target.
A-7E was a small footprint aircraft with its wings folded. I used to joke that the A-7 was proof you could get a rock to fly with a big enough engine.
Smallest plane in the airwings I cruised in. In some circles refered to as SLUF ( short little ugly fucker).
A-7D was procured for AF and was very successful in early combat operations.
With the advent of the F-16, it was quickly sent to the Air Guard where it enjoyed a lengthy career.
ANG units flew A-7s for a long time, along with A-37s and RF-4s before later getting A-10s and F-16s (not to mention Syracuse's failed "A-16" debacle). A big part of it was the idea that we'd have to throw a lot of attack meat into the Fulda Gap grinder to delay the Soviet armor advance and allow our follow on forces to make it to our bases in the UK.
The expected losses were insanely high. That's an OPlan that thankfully never had to be put into action.