So what makes an airplane great? I'd suggest the Grumman EA-6B Prowler has had it all - dominance within its mission area, longevity, and combat record. I'll get right to the point; I will unequivocally offer that the Prowler is the best in the Electronic Warfare (EW) mission area, EVER. To put it simply, the EA-6B is to EW aircraft what the P-51 or Spitfire are to fighters, or what the B-52 is in the bomber field. Mission Dominance: More Prowlers were built (170) than any other specialized EW platform by any country in history. Yeah - 172 EA-18G Growler follow-on EW aircraft are currently planned, 160 for the U.S. Navy and 12 for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), but they're not there yet, and there's still a lot in their story to write. The EA-6B Prowler has long been the gold standard by which all other tactical electronic warfare platforms are judged. Note that when the Air Force decided to build a counterpart in the 1970s, they started with the EA-6B's ALQ-99 system and went on from there. The EA-6B was an early "Low Density/High Demand" platform tracked at the Joint Chiefs of Staff level - something even other recent classics like the F-14 and A-6 can't claim.
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