"MICHAEL OLEARY" wrote:

Actually, the other VAQ squadron was VAQ-143 which never moved beyond the
precommissioning stage. So, the jets and the training throughput were used
elsewhere in the community. However, the replacement is the EA-18G. IOC
for this aircraft is supposed to be 2009.

How many has Congress funded, appropriated the money for
construction, and are underway at Boeing? Last I heard, USAF is
still pushing the F-22 variant, or, worst case, insisting some of
their gear be used on the EA-18G in addition to, or vice some of,
the Navy gear. And remember [and this is neither pro- or
anti-Bush, just recognizing a fact of Congressional life], while
Iraq is going on, the military ain't gonna get the toys they
thought they were going to get, pre-Iraq. Not without Congress
cutting lots and lots of pork projects that they ain't gonna cut.
"Supposed to be" were almost the right words. I'd add a "was" in
front of that.

Too long [gack!, twenty-mumble years] out of the USMC, all of it
spent watching Ft Fumble and the workings of the "greatest
deliberative body in the world"/"the greatest pork production
body in the world" on Capitol Hill across the river for sport, I
won't believe in the EA-18G, or its IOC, until the first
production aircraft rolls out of the Boeing hangar doors.
--
OJ III
[Email to Yahoo address may be burned before reading.
Lower and crunch the sig and you'll net me at comcast.]