Grumman A-6 Intruder Carrier Attack Aircraft

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On Tuesday, June 4, 1996, the skies were clear, and the weather conditions were ideal over the Pacific Ocean as the United States and several Allies conducted the world’s largest maritime exercise.

As they performed a teaching practice, US Navy pilot Lieutenant Commander William Royster and bombardier Lieutenant Keith Douglas were aboard a Grumman A-6 Intruder, one of the world’s most formidable and versatile aircraft.

In service for almost three decades, the Intruder was constantly called upon to fly the most difficult all-weather missions, seeing action in every conflict the United States was involved in since Vietnam.

However, in a strange twist of fate, a Japanese warship mistakenly engaged with the American aircraft and fired at it at 50 rounds per second on that fateful day. Soon, the Intruder’s engines were on fire and the warplace began to spin out of control, setting off an international crisis between the two powerful nations…

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41 thoughts on “Grumman A-6 Intruder Carrier Attack Aircraft”

  4. Grumman lost its' political connection in DC after designing, and building all the above mentioned vehicles, including the Lunar Lander. Thousands of good paying jobs were lost on Long Island. Followed a few years later by Fairchild Republic (A-10 Warthog among others) also closing, losing thousands more good jobs.

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  5. My Father in Law was a naval aviator and Commander. He flew in Vietnam and also served in the Pentagon. He had some involvement in the Libya conflict. He said that the F-111's that flew about eleven hours from England were totally unneeded, as the aircraft on the Carrier were more then capable to carry out the mission. He said it was just Politics, so the Air Force could get some glory and justify their existence. Obviously there was inter-service rivalry, but he pretty much said that with Carrier battle group off the coast, everyone else could go home as the Navy would take care of it. I know, sounds like B*llSh*t now, but he was probably correct. Just a fun POV. I know the SR-71, which was not a Naval asset did damage assessment, so obviously the Navy couldn't do everything. May he rest in Peace.

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  6. In 1992 the Intruder may have been headed for retirement – or maybe not! Lockheed had one they were fooling with in their “Skunkworks” hangar at Dobbins AFB in Marietta, Georgia. It may have been another one-off “Blackbird Project” being prepared for a special mission, it may have been there for researching a new version of the airframe, or it may have been an abandoned project, but nobody was talking about it AT ALL!

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  7. As a USN CIWS technician, I know for a fact the A6 shoot down was operator error on the JMSDF CIWS crew.
    They locked on to the A6 tow plane instead of the target it was towing.

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  9. Always loved these planes even as a boy. I never got to see one in action but I did see some Prowlers take off and land on the flight deck while i was on it. They had a different sound from Hornets and Tomcats.

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  11. Read the book for the movie “Flight of the Intruder”. Gotta say there were some “recollections” by some of the soldiers that disturbed the hell out of teenage me when I read it ages ago.

    Still loved the film and all the A6 intruder in action scenes. Years later it’s funny to notice all the continuity errors with the planes between scenes some decades later.

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  13. As a boy in the sixties, when the A-6 was the Navy's latest greatest, I thought it was ugly and a step backwards, it couldn't even go supersonic. But later on I came to appreciate its utilitarian visage and its shear capability making it one of my favorite modeling subjects. It really is a good looking airplane when you get to know it.

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  15. I worked for Grumman – Northrop Grumman for 42 years. I started as a mechanic on the F-14A in Bethpage, NY (plant 1, 1973) but when I moved to Manufacturing Engineering (ME), the A-6E was my main focus. I then moved to the Calverton final assembly facility where I was assigned to the EF-111A mods. When we won the A-6F contract, I was assigned as an ME on that new bird and was tasked to work with Boeing to coordinate the new Boeing composite wing installation with the new Grumman A-6F fuselage. I'll never forget those days and the awesome challenges we had building an incredible aircraft. I watched the first two A-6F aircraft first flights, what a thrill. After the cancelation of the program, a new proposal was being developed for an A-6G which you did not mention but it was short lived. It is sad that the A-6F was not fully developed and put into service. At the end of the day, it would have been more capable aircraft than the F-18 is today as an all-weather attack aircraft. There was none better than the Grumman Iron Works!

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  22. I worked on the EA6B's electronics at Grumman Aerospace in the late 1970's and flew F4E in ground attack roll earlier on. Besides the ground attack capability of the Intruder, the all weather, low visibility, low altitude capability. The Intruder was a dinner table conversation when I was growing up. Our father ran Grumman's Flight Test operation. It was a pilots aircraft in a sense. I remember stories of test flights and night operations. It's reported that Bomb / Nav's never looked out from under their hoods. Especially at night! Balls out at 100ft flying through mountains in the dark!! What wonderful fun that would be. I've done Mach 2 at 200ft but it was daytime. LOL

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  25. I highly recommend Jeremiah Dentons book "When Hell Was In Session". He was one of the longest held prisoners in N. Vietnam & an A-6 pilot. The book actually has little information about the A-6 but this documentary made me think of Commander Denton. As for a description of the subject matter, the title pretty well sums it up. Thank You again for an interesting documentary.

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  34. Big mistake – there was no international crisis at all. I was in Pearl Harbor, where this fleet was en route to when it happened. This was a training accident where the Japanese destroyer was supposed to hit the towed target the A-6 was pulling. They forgot to input an offset to hit the target instead of the aircraft. Fortunately there was no injury’s. They are a very close and reliable ally; the US never made any issue about the incident because it was clearly an accident!

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  36. although the A-6 intruder designation was retired in the 90s, a variant designed for electronic countermeasures the EA-6 Prowler served until 2019. in the same way the a-6 intruder became the ea6 prowler the f-18 Hornet has also become the ea-18 growler.

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