A-5 Vigilante: The Navy’s Forgotten A-Plane of the Vietnam War
The A-5 Vigilante started life as a supersonic bomber and was designed to carry nukes.
Among other things, the Vietnam War served as the proving grounds for three famous U.S. Navy ”A-planes,” namely, the A-4 Skyhawk (most famous as the plane flown by Sen. John McCain); the A-6 Intruder; and the A-7 Corsair II. All three of these warbirds continued to serve with distinction in combat operations long after the Vietnam War ended—such as the Argentines’ use of the A-4 during the 1982 Falklands War—with all three planes blasting their way back into the headlines in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, aka, Operation Desert Storm (the Intruder and the Corsair in U.S. Navy hands; the Skyhawk in the hands of the Kuwait Air Force).
However, conspicuous by its absence from that alphanumeric sequence is the A-5. Did the Navy conveniently skip the notion of the A-5? Well, no, actually; the A-5 existed and served in an operational status, but, as noted by the text caption to the PilotPhotog video (reshared by MSN in the first week of March 2025) titled “From Nukes to Photos: The A-5 Vigilante Story“: “The A-5 saw extensive use in Vietnam in an entirely different role and had a relatively short career that was cut short by advances it helped introduce.”
The National Interest now gives the A-5 Vigilante its moment in the sun.
A-5 Vigilante Initial History and Specifications
The A-4, A-6, and A-7 were all subsonic attack aircraft (with the Skyhawk and Corsair II more specifically designated “light attack” aircraft). By contrast, the A-5 Vigilante, though also carrier-borne, started life as a supersonic bomber, and was designed to carry nukes for good measure.
Built by the now-defunct North America Aviation—most famous for building the legendary P-51D Mustang fighter and B-25 Mitchell medium bomber of World War II—the Vigilante made its maiden flight on August 31, 1958, and entered into official operational service with the Navy in June 1961. It was initially known as the A3J Vigilante (not to be confused with the Douglas A-3 Skywarrior), then redesignated the A-5A in 1962 thanks to the unification of U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force aircraft designations. The plane had the following tech specs and vital stats:
- Crew: Two; initially pilot and bombardier-navigator (B/N), later pilot and reconnaissance attack navigator (RAN)
- Fuselage Length: 76 ft 6 in (23.32 m)
- Wingspan: 53 ft (16.16 m)
- Height: 19 ft 5 in (5.91 m)
- Empty Weight: 32,783 lbs. (14,870 kg))
- Gross Weight: 47,631 lbs. (21,605 kg)
- Max Takeoff Weight (MTOW): 63,085 lbs. (28,615 kg)
- Powerplant: Two General Electric J79-GE-8 after-burning turbojet engines, 10,900 lbf (48 kN) thrust each dry, 17,000 lbf (76 kN) with afterburner
- Max Airspeed: Mach 2 (1,149 kn; 1,322 mph; 2,128 km/h)
- Combat Range: 974 nmi (1,121 mi, 1,804 km)
- Ferry Range: 1,571 nmi (1,808 mi, 2,909 km)
- Service Ceiling: 52,100 ft (15,900 m)
- Armament:
- One Mark 27, Mark 28, or B43 free-fall nuclear bomb in an internal weapons bay
- Two Mark 83 1,000-lb. or Mark 84/BLU-117 2,000-lb general-purpose bombs on two external hardpoints
The PilotPhotog video notes that the Vigilante “made use of an unusual delivery system,” an “unorthodox linear bomb bay that would store nuclear weapons and fuel tanks in a stores train. Essentially a center cylinder located between the two engines would stack a Mark 28 nuclear weapon with a couple of disposable fuel tanks. The tail cone would be removed during a bombing run, and a drogue chute would pull out the fuel tanks and bomb to deliver the payload.”
The warbird had a slew of firsts for an operational supersonic bomber, such as:
- Full variable wedge-type side air intakes
- Slim forward fuselage
- Fly-by-wire system
- Early version of a digital computer, the Versatile Digital Analyzer (“Verdan”)
167 airframes were built.
Operational History and Performance
The A-5 didn’t last long in its originally intended role, as the Navy soon found that submarines were far more useful for the nuclear strategic attack role.
However, the Vigilante’s story doesn’t end there. Living up to early twentieth-century airpower theorist Gen. Giulio Douhet’s dictum that “Flexibility is the key to airpower,” the A-5A Vigilante found a new lease on life—the “entirely different role” alluded to in the intro of this article—as a reconnaissance aircraft, thusly redesignated the RA-5C. 137 of the 167 airframes were either reconfigured or built from the ground up for this new role (original production run was from 1961-1963, with a second run from 1968-1970).
Thus, eight out of ten RA-5Cs squadrons would see extensive use in the skies over Vietnam flying high-risk, medium-level, post-strike recon missions, starting in 1964. The plane was quite effective in its new role but was also expensive and maintenance-intensive. The RA-5C also suffered significant losses in the war: one of a MiG-21 “Fishbed“ jet fighter, three to surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and eleven to antiaircraft artillery (triple-A) fire, along with nine operational accidents.
The Vigilante also made history in terms of since-broken world records. On December 13, 1960, USN CDR Leroy A. Heath (pilot) and LT Henry L. “Larry” Monroe (B/N) established a world altitude record of 91,450.8 feet in an A3J carrying a 1,000-kilogram payload while ripping through the sky at Mach 2.1, thus beating the previous record by over 4 miles (6.4 km). Heath & Monroe’s record stood for more than thirteen years.
Where Are They Now?
The Vigilante was finally retired on November 20, 1979.
Thirteen survive today, one in the Philippines and the remainder in the United States. Of those survivors, only one is in A-5A nuclear bomber configuration as opposed to RA-5C: Navy Bureau Number (BuNo) 146697—which is indeed the oldest Vigilante on display—at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Lexington Park, Maryland. For good measure, the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum also has an RA-5C on display, BuNo 156643, which just so happens the last RA-5C built (what goes around comes around, eh).
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
Image: Wikimedia Commons.
