I pick up a copy of Flight of the Intruder when I was like 10 , this has been one of my favourite aircraft of all time

What I heard about the A-12 program was: Grumman told the Navy the requirements were impossible.  McDonnell Douglas said, sure we can build it.  So they got the contract but kept asking for more money because it was more difficult then they thought. It ran so over budget that it was cancelled.

You should so a video on either the E-2 Hawkeye, the A-7 or the S-3 Viking.

Now reading "To Train the Fleet for War: The U.S. Navy Fleet Problems, 1923-1940". Halsey and King were very aggressive.

You could always tell when an A-6 trapped on the boat…
Had a very unique sound like the Vulcan due to the resonance in the intakes. The E model with its TRAM pod was the penultimate Naval attack aircraft. As far as the ski-jump? Well, you have to look at the mission profile, fuel requirements, ordnance load-out weighed against aircraft performance. We had VA-52/CVW-15 last ride for both squadron and Air Wing in 1994. Could carry the most conventional ordnance of any US aircraft with the exception of the B-52. A-6 was a bad-ass machine, but was de-funded along with F-14 by the A-7/F-18 “Mafia” in the halls of the Pentagon and NAVAIRSYSCOM. In other words politics killed the A-6 for a decidedly much less capable airplane, the F/A-18A&B. The KA-6D was the best tanker in the Air Wing…And, the VA squadron has a half-dozen Ds which lacked the TRAM pod, radar and attack computer. Love your fuzzy research asst. ❤️

Growing up as a wee lad in Canada, every morning before kindergarten, my mornings cartoons were Star Blazers, Astro Boy, and Inspector Gadget.  And the space fighter in Star Blazers (better known as Space Battleship Yamato) had a really distinctive resemblance to the A-6 Intruder as I recall.  So, the first time I saw the A-6 I got a really strong sense of nostalgia.  Somehow a naval ground attack plane is basically like a flying childhood memory for me.  Needless to say, I will always think they’re really damn cool.

Retiring the Intruder and Viking without a proper replacement has been a serious mistake.

25 minutes. Just getting up to the "Shameless Book Plug", took 24 minutes and 44 seconds!

2:00 just started the video and we got the doc praising STOBAR? What a weird day.

I keep thinking of how much potential the A-6 had to evolve into the 21st century.
-Huge nose for twin radar antennas could be a huge AESA array. Combined with the four seats of the EA-6F it could probably function as a secondary fleet AWACS.
-The GE F404 engines could have added water methanol injection for short take offs and climbing. WMI can add 20-30% thrust without increasing exhaust temperatures.
-The KA-6F would be able to carry 35,000 pounds of fuel internally and externally.
-Land-based A-6F could possibly attract foreign buyers if they added more hardpoints and cut 1,000 pounds from the weight of the wings.

A Buccaneer+Intruder aircraft is a really interesting question.  The two roles are really close and the designs are strikingly close in specification.  We might have ended up with an aircraft with a Buccaneer like airframe with the avionics of the Intruder.  The reason I say that is that the Buccaneer's intended low-altitude high-speed role is more limited by aircraft design than the higher-altitude intended role for the Intruder, which has a greater need for precise avionics and countermeasures.  That aircraft would have been an excellent asset for both the US and UK and its capabilities might have helped it find more international operators than the historical aircraft did.  This greater user base would have meant that upgrades would be more attractive and we would have seen at least some of the proposed upgrades in the mid-70s through late-80s actually implemented.  That pushes the out-of-service date back significantly and aircraft like this are far better suited to the types of missions the US and UK were sending them on in the 2000s/2010s than the supersonic fighters that were actually used.  Maintenance overall will be reduced with wing wear in particular being lessened, as the fighters have more lightly built wings than attack bombers do and thus don't hold up as well to constantly carrying large bomb loads.

Thanks again!

The Navy was penny-wise and pound foolish putting all its eggs in the F/A-18. They thought they could be more efficient by going with the Super Hornet and get rid of both the Tomcat and the Intruder. Not to mention the Prowler. I understand the thought on a more simplified training and logistics system with one basic airframe. However, all three of the older airframes were far far better than the Super Hornet. Drones? How much ordnance can they carry, and are the vulnerabilities to “spoofing” fully mitigated? I’m very dubious of the state of the art being able to adequately operate a strike carrier w/battle group.

If we're going to get into the bomb truck it has to go super Sonic. That was the one real huge problem with that place. It was slow

The A-6F had potential to become the F-6F if the twin radars were replaced with the APG-71 from the Tomcat. Its giant nose had a lot of potential beyond just low level flight.

A great airplane!  We always though had problems with its bomb computer and radar altimeter.

The Tomahawk in question was the AGM-109H/L MRASM was jount program between the USAF/USN and was canceled by 1985 from what I've read might have been completing for funds for stuff most likely more Tomahawks for Warships and newer aircraft like the A-12

Yup, was quite long ranged.

I know it's slightly off topic but it has to do with your leadership that you're doing this year, which is fantastic by the way
Instead of doing just captains and admirals, is there a way to look at individual sailors that made a big difference or sending cos that made a big difference? Or perhaps a lieutenant that had some sway with the captain? Something along those lines give the lower ranks a chance to shine

Love me intruder, simple as, fell like everything after the cold war ended: we don't improve it because we're working on the a-12, it's replacement, budget cuts, program cancelled, the prior platform is hopelessly out of date, so it gets retired, your long range strike platform now is the hornet, and now you don't have carrierbourne tankers. Congratulations you played yourself.