BRUCE MILLER COLLECTION
No. 8865. Grumman G-128 A-6E Intruder (149943 c/n I-24, 152928 c/n I-232) US Navy
Photographed in 1989, source unknown

Grumman G-128 A-6E Intruder

04/30/2009. Remarks by Bruce Miller: "This illustrates a paint experiment we did in VA-165 in 1989. The camouflage paint was a tinted version of a paint that Boeing used to ship parts to prevent corrosion. The paint was easy to remove and change colors to fit the current area of operations. The results seen when flying over the Nevada desert did a good job of making the aircraft hard to see, but in most cases the shadow is more visible than the airplane, so it doesn't do much good.

Both pictured aircraft were originally produced as A-6As in the 1960s, sometime after 1970 converted to the A-6E version with new avionics, including a multi-mode radar. After 1975 they were fitted with a TRAM (Target Recognition Attack Multi-sensor) turret under the nose.

149943 was cannibalized to its bare structure (without panels, doors and canopy), and in June 1996 it became one of 44 A-6Es that were sunk to form an artificial reef of the coast of Florida, also known as 'Intruder Reef'.

With VA-145 during Desert Storm, 152928 was shot down by ground fire over Kuwait on January 18, 1991. Both crew were killed."


Created April 30, 2009