North American A-5 Vigilante

A North American A-5B Vigilante of the USN with its array of weapons at North American Aviation at Columbus, Ohio sometime in 1962.

The North American A-5 Vigilante is an American carrier-based supersonic bomber designed and built by North American Aviation for the United States Navy. Its service in the nuclear strike role to replace the Douglas A-3 Skywarrior was very short; however, as the RA-5C, it saw extensive service during the Vietnam War in the tactical strike reconnaissance role. Prior to the unification of the Navy designation sequence with the [[United States Air Force|Air Force[[ sequence in 1962, it was designated the A3J Vigilante.

Variants

• XA3J-1: (NA247) Prototypes, two built, one converted to RA-5C, one crashed 1959.
• A3J-1: 58 built, 6 cancelled, survivors re-designated A-5A in 1962, 42 converted to RA-5C. Redesignated as A-5A.
• A3J-2: 18 built, redesignated A-5B, 5 completed as XA3J-3P (YA-5C), all converted to RA-5C. Redesignated as A-5B.
• XA3J-3P: 5 A3J-2 completed from A3J-2 order without reconnaissance systems and assigned to pilot familiarization, later converted to RA-5C. Redesignated as YA-5C before conversion to RA-5C.
• 'A3J-3P: 20 built, re-designated RA-5C.
• RA-5C: Reconnaissance aircraft, 77 contracted, 8 cancelled, 69 built, plus 20 redesignated and 61 converted from earlier variants
• NR-349: Proposed Improved Manned Interceptor for U.S. Air Force with three J79 engines and an armament of six AIM-54 Phoenix missiles.

Users

• United States
  • United States Navy x 156

See Also

• Dassault Mirage IV