Originally Posted by
ORAC
The U.S. Marine Corps has begun in earnest to divest itself of the EA-6B Prowler and the unique electronic warfare (EW) capabilities of the ICAP III aircraft. As currently planned, Fiscal Year 2016 will start
the dismantlement of the Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron (VMAQ) community and phase-out of the EA6B aircraft that has since the mid-1970s served this nation and Marine Corps airborne EW requirements. Through 2019, one VMAQ squadron per year will be phased out.
The Marines have to let it go because NAVAIR is replacing EA-6B with F-18G and does not want to have to support the legacy airframe, no matter how great a machine it was. I have been reading "Nobody Asked Me, But ... " columns in USNI Proceedings for about 35 years, on and off. Note that the author is ret LTC. The Prowler was great, and has in many cases been ridden hard and put away wet.