PilotPhotog

What a way to go: some retired A-6 Intruders have quite the tale. In the mid-1990s, the US Navy deliberately sank over 40 stripped airframes off the coast of Florida to create a massive artificial marine habitat. Today, the dive spot is officially known as "Intruder Reef”

Tomcat Tuesday: Did you know there were plans for an advanced Super Tomcat AND Intruder? Grumman had proposed the ST-21: an F-14 with composites, super cruise and thrust vectoring. Meanwhile the A-6F Intruder would have carried AMRAAMs.

Who was DIANE and why did “she” fly with every Intruder crew? The heart of the A-6 Intruder was the Digital Integrated Attack Navigation Equipment system, or DIANE. Decades before GPS and digital moving maps became commonplace in aviation, Grumman’s A-6 combined radar, inertial navigation, air-data information, and a computerized bombing system that allowed A-6’s to operate and prosecute targets in any weather, at any time. The Intruder was basically a compact heavy bomber operating off of a carrier deck in the 1960s. The more I learn about this aircraft, the more impressed I am of the Iron Tadpole - the A-6 video is in production, hoping to have this to you by Monday 3 August. Now you know! -Tog

Aviation and especially military aviation are full of “what ifs”. What if one airframe had been chosen over another? The classic YF-22 versus YF-23 debate still rages to this day. In the case of the A-6 intruder, Grumman had proposed an advanced “Intruder II” which would have been the A-6F version. Upgrades featured a GE F404 class engine, similar to the one used on the F-18 Hornet just without afterburners, advanced avionics, and the ability to carry a larger variety of weapons systems including the AIM-120 AMRAAM. The Intruder II had enormous potential on a proven airframe but sadly was canceled mainly due to the A-12 Avenger II project running at the same time. Ironically, the A-12 program itself was cancelled which ultimately left the Navy without a direct replacement to its most versatile bomb truck. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy these notes as I research the topic for my next video and newsletter!

1/ Raven Nine: The EF-111’s jamming suite was almost too good. During training flights out of Mountain Home AFB, the Air Force had to slap strict frequency limits on the jet after it accidentally opened garage doors and set off personal pagers all over Western Idaho!
2/ But when real war broke out, that raw power saved countless lives. In 1986 (Op El Dorado Canyon), 5 Ravens flew a grueling 3,500-mile mission from England to Libya, refueling 4 times mid-air just to blind Libyan air defenses.
3/ During Operation Desert Storm (1991), the Spark Vark became an absolute force multiplier, flying over 900 combat sorties.
4/ They tore massive holes in one of the densest air defense networks on earth. Coalition commanders rarely cleared non-stealthy aircraft into heavy SAM territory unless a Spark Vark was confirmed on overwatch.
5/ The best part? Not a single Raven was ever lost to enemy fire. Stay tuned for the upcoming video!

Raven 8: The EF-111 Raven didn't just jam aimlessly; it broke specific links in the enemy's "kill chain" across 10 different frequency bands. Crews executed three primary mission profiles to perfection.

1. Pe*******on Es**rt ("Pen Es**rt") The most demanding profile. Ravens flew deep into hostile territory right next to the strike jets, keeping them safely nestled inside a moving broadside jamming bubble.

2. Close-In Jamming The Ravens went in first. Flying ahead of the attack package in their signature TACO pattern, they blinded forward enemy radars before friendly fighters even crossed the border.

3. Stand-Off Jamming The ultimate high-altitude umbrella. Orbiting safely outside SAM range, Ravens cast a massive blanket of noise over an entire theater—becoming the absolute backbone of air operations in Desert Storm.

From low-slung A-10s to massive B-52s, everyone wanted a Raven in the sky. Full operational history drops in the upcoming video!

1/ Raven Seven: Hunting down enemy radars in a cluttered electronic environment is no easy feat. EWOs described the job as "trying to spot a single bird in a massive tree, while looking through a drinking straw."
2/ To drive maximum "Watts per Hertz" power into an enemy receiver, the Raven needed to fly broadside to the threat. But staying broadside too long meant drifting completely off the strike team's attack route.
3/ The solution? A tag-team maneuver called the TACO Pattern. Yes really. Tacos...in the sky...I'm rendering out these scenes today - hopefully my animations do it justice, here's how it goes:
4/ Ravens flew in pairs to conquer the airspace:
• Divide the Spectrum: Each jet took half the electronic workload, covering different frequency bands.
• Role-Swapping: One Raven would turn broadside to blast the radar with peak jamming power, while the second stayed aligned on the attack axis. They would constantly swap back and forth.
5/ Thanks to its fighter DNA, the Raven could yank into tight, aggressive turns to snap back on course in seconds. Watch our upcoming video to see this wild choreography animated and pour one out for my GPU because it has been working overtime!

1/ Raven Six: In the Navy’s Prowler, it took a crew of four (one pilot and three countermeasures officers) to run the jamming systems. In the EF-111A Raven, a single Electronic Warfare Officer (EWO) did it all.
2/ Grumman stripped out the right-side flight controls, leaving only the throttles. The right seat became the EWO's domain, packed with custom CRT displays, frequency monitors, and automated keyboards.
3/ But for all its multi-million dollar automation, the Raven had one hilariously archaic flaw: It only had one single UHF radio.
4/ Even a basic Cessna 172 has dual radios so you can monitor two frequencies at once. In the Raven, if the pilot was talking to the air commander, they couldn't talk to the ground or the nearby Rivet Joint without manually switching over.
5/ We love weird aviation quirks. We're breaking down the full, bizarre interior layout of the Spark Vark in the next video!

1/ Raven Five: How do you actually turn a supersonic nuclear bomber into an electronic ghost-maker? In 1975, Grumman got $85.9M to convert 42 F-111A airframes into EF-111A Ravens.
2/ The modifications changed the silhouette of the jet completely:
• The Underbelly Canoe: A 16-foot-long radome replacing the bomb bay to house the high-powered AN/ALQ-99E transmitter antennas.
• The Football: A prominent, bulbous pod atop the tail fin housing ultra-sensitive receiver antennas for 360-degree signal detection.
[Football Pod] -> _|_
/ | \
/ | \
===========/===========[ ]===========
/_/ (Canoe Radome)
3/ The Raven could loiter efficiently with its wings swept forward, or sweep them back to dash away into hostile territory at a blistering Mach 2.2 alongside F-15s and F-4s.
4/ It completely stripped away its fire control systems, wiring and the bomb bay. Its only defense? Pure, unadulterated performance, terrain-following radar, and absolute electronic blindness for the enemy.
5/ Want to see how these modifications worked in combat? Keep an eye out for the upcoming video premiere be sure to follow and subscribe and now you know!!