F-16 Intruder?

Alright, I have this Co-worker who told me of a time he was by what he believes was a Northrop facility and told me how a Northrop engineer pointed out a few planes in the sky that were flying by.

The engineer called them Navy F-16 Intruders. This was back in 2003-2005(time frame). Now, I found several discrepancies with this story, so I showed my co-worker pictures of the Grumman A-6 Intruder and he says, through memory that it was similar to what the planes he saw looked like.

I told him there were never any operational Naval F-16's, but he seems very sure that the engineer said "F-16 Intruder".

Now I'm not sure, it was definitely NOT an original military designation, perhaps a contractor-specific designation?

I'm just trying to find out for my co-worker if what the man said was really true. The aircraft definitely fit the description of the A-6 Intruder. Does anyone know anything else about a possible Navy F-16?

Shattered OUT...

Varients of the f16 can be found here

www.f-16.net...

You are correct that an Intruder is an A-6. As far as I know, the Navy doesn't fly any F planes, only As, but then it's been over 20 years since I was in the Air Force and actually paid attention to all those nifty planes taking off all day and all night.

Of course, I have no inside info. But if there is such a thing as an "F-16 Intruder", I don't think it'd be much of a secret if they were flying them routinely out of a Northrup Grumman facility.

www.f-16.net...

Navy F16's might be a varient of these

I would say your friend probably misheard him. The F-16 is designated the Fighting falcon, not Intruder where as the A-6 is.

Also the navy has no use for a naval based F-16 fighter as the F-18 is far more advanced and can fill more combat rolls making the carrier a stronger fighting platform.

A carrier can only carry so many planes. F-14 Tomcats are being phased out now that the F-18 is so capable so I would highly doubt the F-16 would go naval. Now with the F-35 in development it makes it seem even more doubtful.

I'm betting he just misheard

I never had to study nor heard about a navy f-16 thru my years of tech school for f-16/f117 crew chief training......

im sure if there was a navy f-16 one of our instructors would of ranted about it as he was ex navy himself....

maybe he said his son jeff was turning 16 lol joking

anywho, have a great day...

A couple thoughts spring to mind.

F-16 "Agressor" ? The -16N was a landbased a/c delivered to the Navy for use in the agressor role.

"A-6" Intruder: this makes more sense because the plane is produced by Northrop Grumman and the event occured at a Northrop plant. Include in this category the EA-6 "Prowler"

The Navy operated F-16N aggressor aircraft out of Mirimar NAS (now Mirimar MCAS) for the Top Gun program in the late 1980's - I got to see a flight of them coming in for a landing one day while sitting near the end of the runway

I've never heard them referred to as "intruders" though.

Another thought.

-6E would sound something like 16. So "A-6E Intruder" might be a case of him mis-remembering the prefix and mis-hearing the suffix.

Well he said it definitely had two engines and what looks sounds like (to me) a fuel probe or pitot tube jutting out of the nose of the aircraft. He said there was a protrusion on the nose of the aircraft.

Shattered OUT...

The Navy still operates the F-16N. For the first time in history a Top Gun class was cancelled because all but one of the F-16s is grounded.

What your describing sounds like your standard A-6 "Intruder"

Pict: www.globalaircraft.org...

Well he said it definitely had two engines and what looks sounds like (to me) a fuel probe or pitot tube jutting out of the nose of the aircraft. He said there was a protrusion on the nose of the aircraft.


external image

all A-6Es were fitted with the AN/AAS-33 DRS (Detecting and Ranging Set), part of the TRAM (Target Recognition and Attack, Multi-Sensor) system, a small, gyroscopically stabilized turret, mounted under the nose of the aircraft, containing FLIR boresighted with a laser spot-tracker/designator and IBM System/4 Pi computer.

= protrusion on the nose of the aircraft.

Wee Mad Mental

That electronics suite is located below the nose, he was talking about the protrusion on top, which closely resembles a pitot tube. That thing on top of the nose is also part of the electronics suit?

Shattered OUT...

You mean the refueling probe? That's all that is, is to take on fuel from the tanker.

WMM what your describing is actually the dome under the nose that is visible in your picture just visible in-front of the air intakes and below the refueling probe which is mounted above.

Not sure if you where trying to point out the correct thing or not. If needed I can highlight the dome but its really the only bulge under the nose.

The refueling probe is the sideways "L" from the top. The protrusion on the nose, would sound like the TRAM turret to me. I think this is case closed. A-6E or A-6D Intruder.