“They are getting old”
The EA-6B Prowler started life in 1971 as the A-6 Intruder airframe. The Navy didn’t retire it until 2019.
The Navy does so like to get their money’s worth out of their aircraft platforms. TOO long in my humble opinion.
Having said that, working around the power plants on those jets paid a lot of my bills for a long time....and I’m grateful.
The problem with helicopters is the glide ratio.
It doesn’t have one.....................
EA-6B Prowler...........My company designed and built some of the ‘electronics’ used on that A/C...................
I was lucky enough to make two trips to St. Louis to pick up a brand new Phantom from the factory.
The next best planes we got were from PAR at Cherry Point.
But usually the Navy gave us their worn out hand-me-downs. The most valuable member of our squadron was the McDonnell tech rep.