Intruder Alert!

[SebastianP]

I got bored with waiting for the putty to dry on most of my ongoing builds, so I pulled out a fresh kit. It happens to be an A-6E from Italeri by way of Revell, and it looks to be a nice little kit. Could do with some spicing up, though, and I thought, why not update it a bit for the 21st century?

According to the Globalsecurity website, back in 1999 the USN offered to sell a bunch of newly renovated A-6Es which had more or less just gotten back to the carriers when they were withdrawn from service. There's no listing of who may have been interested, and who had been offered them, so the sky is more or less the limit.

On hand, I have insignia left over (as in not earmarked) for Austria, France (navy and airforce), Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, the UK (RAF), the US (Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard!), and considering the relative size of the airframe, the Czech Republic as well. Not too shabby for my drastically thinned out collection of decals, I say.

(I even have some WWII decals that could look cool on it as well - how about an Intruder in Medium Sea Blue with Star-and-Bar, carrying cruise missiles under the wings?)

SP

[PolluxDeltaSeven]

A French A-6 as an Etendard IV (instead of the Super Etendard) could be cool for the Navy.
Or, if you go with your timeline, you could imagine a story that could fit. In 1999, the French Navy was on its worse days ever, with no naval interceptor since the retirement of the Crusader (and with only a few Rafale in trials, still not operational), and even no carrier, the Foch being sold to Brazilwhile the Charle de Gaule was still on trials...
A bunch of Intruder could find it's place in this timeline, if we only help it a little bit



If you don't mind, here is a possibility:


In the late 1980's, the French Navy's Air Wing was composed of very old Crusader and more modern Super Etendard, that were just a new variant of the old Etendad IV with a radar. At this time, the Rafale program was launched, but it soon appears that the Crusader and Super Etendard will not have the ability to wait unil their replacement.
A retrofit of both the Crusader and the SuE was proposed, but the Marine Nationale finally preferred to lease 24 F/A-18A for 10 years, replacing the Crusader... But sadly for them, the Super Etendard modernization was canceled in order to pay the leasing.

But in 1999, a real problem appeared for the French Navy. The leasing time is now over, but the Rafale deliveries suffer from major delays!! Only half a squadron was delivered at this time, and only with air-to-air abilities while 2 multipurpose squadrons were initially planned!!
Worse!! Due to the leasing and the top priority of the Rafale program, the Super Etendard are not able to serve until 2010-2015 (the year when the Rafale will be in all the Marine squadrons).

So, as an interim solution, the French Navy bought 24 ex-US Navy A-6E, waiting for the multipurpose Rafale.

Those aircrafts could be easily launch from the Charles de Gaulle in most of the operationnal configurations (except for the heaviest configurations), and they serve in the Marine Nationale up to 2016 as anti-ship aircrafts (with Exocet), classical bombers (including guided bombs and AS-30L missiles), but also as nuclear bombers (only between 2001 and 2009) and, for the first time in the French Navy, as anti-radar aircrafts (with HARM since 1999, and later in 2004 with ALQ-199 pods, like a mini-Prowler).




I hope this back story is good for you. i'm sorry if there are some details wrong, I only imagined it right now



Well, actually, my second guess will be for Spain! I have no backstory for this country, but I like their roundels and it's also a good opportunity to have an original scheme!!
Maybe we could imagine another cheaper deal instead of the Hornet, maybe with A-6E for the ground attack and modernised Phantom for the air defense role?

[fallenphoenix]

if they go to France how about something along the lines of the A-6F?
that way you could replace the F-8 and SuE with one airframe, subsonic but heavily armed, clearly superior in A2G and acting as a flying SAM site in A2A.

Craig