educate the other platforms and crews,
plus the non-aviator participants.’
Lt Col Rundle said the decision not to put
any new further Prowler aircrews through
WTI was largely driven by the timeline
of the sundown for the type, which will
occur in 2019.
VMAQ-2 was in Arizona for about two
months in total. ‘We came here with the
majority of the squadron,’ said Rundle,who will be the last ever Prowler squadron
commanding officer. ‘There’s a whole
lot to be learned while we’re here; we’ve
created some great opportunities to be
challenged in the airplane, plus we have
the experience of operating away from
home. Our primary focus is WTI support,
so if there is an electronic warfare facet
to the WTI scenario, we are involved. But
there are other opportunities on certaindays where airspace is available when WTI
isn’t using it; on those days we continue
with our unit-level training, that means
doing a lot of airmanship, flight-lead
qualifications and flying low level, that
kind of thing.’Low density,
high demand
The dwindling, yet potent, Prowler fleet
may be stationed at Cherry Point, but their
deployment schedule means it’s hard for
them to know where to call home. Despite
entering the sundown phase of the type,
this community has seen no downturn
in its combat commitments. VMAQ-4
‘Seahawks’ disbanded right off the back
of a combat deployment to Incirlik,
Turkey, for OIR from April until October- VMAQ-2 relieved the ‘Seahawks’
and maintained the OIR mission until
late March 2017 when VMAQ-3 ‘Moon
Dogs’ headed east. With VMAQ-3 having
Above: A ‘Moon
Dogs’ EA-6B
drops away
from a 340th
Expeditionary
Air Refueling
Squadron
KC-135R
during a flight
in support
of Operation
‘Inherent
Resolve’ on June
8, 2017. USAF/
SSgt Trevor T.
McBride
Left: The VMAQ- 2
commander’s
jet, seen at
Yuma in October
2017 during
the Weapons
and Tactics
Instructor
course. USMC/
Cpl Ernest D.
GrantUS NAVY & MARINE CORPS AIR POWER YEARBOOK 2018
(^46) TYPE REPORT
44-49 Prowler Farewell C.indd 46 31/05/2018 22:01