Initially developed to serve as a strategic bomber to the United States Navy, the Douglas A-3 Skywarrior went on to become one of the most versatile and long-serving aircraft in the history of naval aviation. Designed by Ed Heinemann and built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, the Skywarrior made its first sortie on October 28, 1952, and entered service in 1956 before it was finally retired on September 27, 1991, making it one of the longest-serving carrier-based aircraft.
Nicknamed “The Whale” for its sheer size and weight, the Skywarrior was the heaviest operational aircraft to ever operate from the carriers of naval forces. It was initially designed as a strategic bomber and later in the years re-tasked into multiple other roles, such as electronic warfare, tactical air reconnaissance, and, last of all, high-capacity aerial refueling. This versatility in re-role kept its importance alive for combats for more than a decade.
The Skywarrior belonged to a family of two types of U.S. Only two strategic bombing aircraft had previously seen full-scale service: the other was the North American AJ Savage, predecessor to the A-3. The carrier-based North American A-5 Vigilante was used in the early 1960s for strategic nuclear strike missions, replacing the A-3. But just as shifts in military strategy deleted aircraft carriers from the Single Integrated Operational Plan and transferred the Navy’s strategic nuclear deterrence mission to Fleet Ballistic Missile submarines, the Vigilante’s mission was changed to a new tactical air reconnaissance role.
A major derivative of the Skywarrior was the B-66 Destroyer deployed with the U.S. Air Force as early as the 1970s as a tactical bomber, electronic warfare airplane, and reconnaissance vehicle. A derivative of the Skywarrior is the EA-3 Skywarrior, which was extensively used in electronic intelligence (ELINT) tasks during the Vietnam War and other conflicts, among them Desert Storm.
This variant, the EA-3B, modified especially for electronic intelligence gathering against the Warsaw Pact, had missions worldwide from 1956. The crew complement was seven, which included one Electronic Warfare Officer and three Electronic Systems Operators/Evaluators. It gave the United States unique electronic reconnaissance capability during the Cold War and the Vietnam War.
But the legacy of the Skywarrior lives on, despite its retirement in 1991. U.S. Navy RDT&E units, specifically NAVAIR activities at NAS Point Mugu and NAWS China Lake, attempted to hold onto their A-3 testbeds. But then Vice Admiral Richard Dunleavy, an ex-A-3 bombardier/navigator, said, “Over my dead body,” and that was that.
The Skywarrior’s design was a long, slender fuselage with a single vertical tail fin, shoulder-mounted wings, and tricycle undercarriage. Use in some different roles was facilitated by several different versions of the aircraft, such as the A3D-1, A3D-2, and EA-3B. These versions supported photographic reconnaissance, aerial refueling, and electronic warfare.
In the course of the Vietnam War, the Skywarrior served as an in-flight refueler and reconnaissance vessel, but not for bombing, as it was initially designed to. It even saw service during the 1991 Gulf War in its EA-3B form.
The Douglas A-3 Skywarrior emerged as a legendary instance of adaptability and long-life military aircraft, serving with distinction the interests of the United States Navy for more than 30 years.