Prowler training operations at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station have been affected by a mechanical problem with EA-6B engines that required grounding about 20 percent of the fleet.
Naval air operations officials at the Pentagon ordered the grounding in January of any engine that tested positive for too many metal particles in the engine oil. Such particles in the oil indicate a mechanical problem with the engine. Checks of the fleet revealed 60 engines with the problem, grounding 32 aircraft, said Cmdr. Sterling Gilliam, EA-6B requirements officer for the Chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon.
While deployed Prowlers and those soon to go on deployment have already been repaired, 24 aircraft involving 29 engines, many of which are located at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, remained grounded as of Friday.
“When you talk about Prowlers, everything affects Whidbey,” Gilliam said on Friday. “Obviously it puts pressure on the training.”
Gilliam is the former commanding officer of VAQ-141, a Prowler squadron stationed at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. He transferred to the Pentagon shortly after returning home in November from Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. VAQ-141’s homecoming had been delayed due to the war on terrorism, and it was involved in the support of the first airstrikes on Taliban and Al Qaeda targets on Oct. 7.
Repair teams are working on the engines at Whidbey Island, Jacksonville, Fla., and Cherry Point, N.C., and the hope is that fixes will be made at the rate of 24 engines per month.
“That will help us get well soon,” Gilliam said. He expects that it will take until late summer or perhaps into the fall for all engines to be repaired.
The problems with the engines can be attributed to the age of the aircraft.
“Certainly with any legacy aircraft … you’re going to have … problems,” Gilliam said.
With so few Prowlers fleetwide — only 122 total — squadrons are having to transfer aircraft between them in order to fill the most critical need. Squadrons with already-repaired aircraft, upon returning home from deployment, transfer the planes to other squadrons that need them most, Gilliam said. Those squadrons early on in their interdeployment training cycles, and the Navy’s Prowler training squadron VAQ-129 based here, are those most affected by the grounding now, Gilliam said. Those squadrons are short on useable aircraft.
