Aviation Specials - July 2018

W

HEN US FORCES,

along with British and

French allies, struck

targets inside Syria on

April 7, 2018, one of

the strike packages

was escorted by a US Marine Corps

EA-6B Prowler. Despite only a single

squadron of jets remaining, its six jets

are deployed to the Middle East and

are set to play a major role in the region

right up until the squadron  nally bows

out in early 2019.

Under the umbrella of Marine Aircraft

Group (MAG) 14 at MCAS Cherry Point,

North Carolina, training squadron

VMAQT-1 ‘Banshees’ disbanded in 2016,

followed by VMAQ-4 ‘Seahawks’ in June

2017, and VMAQ-3 ‘Moon Dogs’ ended

their Prowler ops in May 2018, leaving

VMAQ-2 ‘Death Jesters’ as the very last unit

before the  nal curtain is drawn in 2019.

Recent milestones included the

deployment of the ‘Moon Dogs’ to Turkey

from March 2017 in support of Operation

‘Inherent Resolve’ (OIR), plus VMAQ-2’s

participation in October 2017’s Weapons

and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course at

MCAS Yuma, Arizona, before it too headed

east for one last deployment. It was

VMAQ-2 that saw action on the night

of April 7, providing electronic warfare

support for USAF B-1B Lancers.

The Yearbook spoke with Lt Col Andrew

‘Grundy’ Rundle, commanding o cer of

‘Q-2’ at WTI: ‘This is likely the last time we

will see Prowler support of WTI.’ Despite

not putting any new pilots or electronic

countermeasures o cers (ECMOs,

pronounced ‘Eck-Moes’) through the

demanding WTI course this time around,

the deployment en masse to the desert

of southern Arizona was a major training

event for the squadron. ‘Coming out to

WTI is an opportunity to get away from

Cherry Point and really focus on our

mission,’ explained Rundle. ‘The ranges,

the airspace around Yuma, the support

we get from MAWTS-1 [Marine Aviation

Weapons and Tactics Squadron One] here

and all the other Marine Corps assets that

come into town to participate — it’s a

tremendous venue. We have the assets

and the dedicated range space — we

own it and therefore we can focus on

our missions. Coming here is extremely

important for the relationships we have

and for our processes that make us as

e ective as we can be. So, when we have

an opportunity like this, we take it. We

can get a lot achieved in support of

the WTI class, helping to

With a single squadron of EA-6B Prowlers remaining

and impending retirement in 2019, the US Marine Corps

is squeezing every last bit of use from these stalwart

electronic warfare jets.

REPORT Jamie Hunter

At 1,000ft

above the

Arizona desert

scrub, a VMAQ-

2 EA-6B —

callsign ‘Shock

71’ — eases in

for fuel from

a KC-130J in

October 2017.

Jamie Hunter

US NAVY & MARINE CORPS AIR POWER YEARBOOK 2018

(^44) TYPE REPORT
44-49 Prowler Farewell C.indd 44 31/05/2018 22:00