The General Dynamics/McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II was a proposed American

attack aircraft An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pr ...

from

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

and

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas Corporation was a major American Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own ...

. It was to be an all-weather, carrier-based stealth bomber replacement for the

Grumman A-6 Intruder The Grumman A-6 Intruder is a twinjet all-weather subsonic attack aircraft developed and manufactured by American aircraft company Grumman Aerospace. It was formerly operated by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. The A-6 was designed in ...

in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

and

Marine Corps Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore (often in supp ...

. Its ''Avenger II'' name was taken from the

Grumman TBF Avenger The Grumman TBF Avenger (designated TBM for aircraft manufactured by General Motors) is an American World War II-era torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and eventually used by several air and naval a ...

of World War II. The development of the A-12 was troubled by cost overruns and several delays, causing questions of the program's ability to deliver upon its objectives; these doubts led to the development program's cancellation in 1991. The manner of its cancellation was contested through litigation until a settlement was reached in January 2014.

Design and development

Advanced Tactical Aircraft program

The United States Navy began the Advanced Tactical Aircraft (ATA) program in 1983. The program was to develop and field a replacement for the A-6 Intruder by 1994. Stealth technology developed for the United States Air Force would be used heavily in the program. Concept design contracts were awarded to the industry teams of

, and Northrop/

Grumman The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a 20th century American producer of military and civilian aircraft. Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman and his business partners, it merged in 19 ...

Vought Vought was the name of several related American aerospace firms. These have included, in the past, Lewis and Vought Corporation, Chance Vought, Vought-Sikorsky, LTV Aerospace (part of Ling-Temco-Vought), Vought Aircraft Companies, and Vought ...

in November 1984. The teams were awarded contracts for further concept development in 1986. The General Dynamics/McDonnell Douglas team was selected as the winner on 13 January 1988; the rival team led by Grumman surprisingly failed to submit a final bid. The General Dynamics/McDonnell Douglas team was awarded a development contract and the ATA aircraft was designated ''A-12''. The first flight was initially planned for December 1990.Jenkins 2002, p. 95. The A-12 was named ''Avenger II'' in homage to the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

-era Navy torpedo-bomber

. The Navy initially sought to buy 620 A-12s and Marines wanted 238. In addition, the Air Force briefly considered ordering some 400 of an A-12 derivative.Mahnken 2008, p. 166. The A-12 was promoted as a possible replacement for the Air Force's

General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark is a retired supersonic, medium-range, multirole combat aircraft. Production models of the F-111 had roles that included attack (e.g. interdiction), strategic bombing (including nuclear weapons capabiliti ...

, and for the United Kingdom's

Panavia Tornado The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multi-role combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany. There are three primary #Variants, Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS ...

fighter-bombers.Richardson 2001, p. 110. The craft was a

flying wing A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft that has no definite fuselage, with its crew, payload, fuel, and equipment housed inside the main wing structure. A flying wing may have various small protuberances such as pods, nacelles, blis ...

design in the shape of an

isosceles triangle In geometry, an isosceles triangle () is a triangle that has two Edge (geometry), sides of equal length and two angles of equal measure. Sometimes it is specified as having ''exactly'' two sides of equal length, and sometimes as having ''at le ...

, with the

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...

situated near the apex of the triangle.Jenkins 2002, pp. 96–97. The A-12 gained the nickname "Flying Dorito". The aircraft was to be powered by two General Electric F412-D5F2

turbofan A turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a combination of references to the preceding generation engine technology of the turbojet and the add ...

engines, each producing about of thrust. It was designed to carry precision guided weapons internally, up to two

AIM-120 AMRAAM The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) ( ) is an American Beyond-visual-range missile, beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile capable of all-weather day-and-night operations. It uses active transmit-receive radar guidance ...

air-to-air missiles, two

AGM-88 HARM The AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile) is a tactical, air-to-surface anti-radiation missile designed to home in on electronic transmissions coming from surface-to-air radar systems. It was originally developed by Texas Instruments ...

air-to-ground missiles and a complement of air-to-ground ordnance, including unguided or precision-guided bombs, could be carried in an internal weapons bay. It has been claimed that the A-12 was to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons held in its internal weapons bay as well.Polmar and Norris 2009, p. 75. The A-12 was to have a weapons load of .Thomason 2009, p. 184. Beginning in early 1990 General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas revealed delays and projected cost increases. Due to late requirement changes to the aircraft impacting the composite design, aircraft weight had increased to 30% over design specification. This was unwelcome for an airplane that needed to operate efficiently and effectively from an aircraft carrier. Technical difficulties with the complexity of the radar system to be used also caused costs to increase; by one estimate the A-12 was to consume up to 70% of the Navy's budget for aircraft. After delays, its critical design review was successfully completed in October 1990 and the maiden flight was rescheduled to early 1992. In December 1990 plans were made for 14 Navy aircraft carriers to be equipped with a wing of 20 A-12s each. A government report released in November 1990 documented serious problems with the A-12 development program. In December 1990 Secretary of Defense

Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American former politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He has been called vice presidency o ...

told the Navy to justify the program and deliver reasons why it should not be canceled. The response given by the Navy and the contractors failed to persuade the Secretary of Defense, as he canceled the program in the following month, on 7 January 1991, for breach of contract. The government felt the contractors could not complete the program and instructed them to repay most of the $2 billion that had been spent on A-12 development. McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics disputed this in Federal Claims court.Jenkins 2002, pp. 95–96. The reasons and causes for the cancellation have been debated and have been an issue of controversy.

Aftermath

After the cancellation of the A-12, the Navy elected to purchase the

F/A-18E/F Super Hornet The Boeing F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet are a series of American supersonic twinjet, twin-engine, Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-capable, Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft derived from the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Ho ...

, which went on to replace the A-6 Intruder and the

F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, tandem two-seat, twin-tail, all-weather-capable variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experi ...

. The Super Hornet uses the General Electric F414 turbofan engine, which is a modified variant of the upgraded F404 version developed for the A-12. The full-size A-12

mockup In manufacturing and design, a mockup, or mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. A mockup may be a ''prototype'' if it provides at lea ...

was revealed to the public at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in June 1996.Jenkins 2002, p. 96. The cancellation of the A-12 is seen as one of the major losses in the 1990s that weakened McDonnell Douglas and led to its merger with rival Boeing in 1997. After years of being in storage at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics (formerly General Dynamics) facility in Fort Worth, Texas, the mockup was transported to Veterans Memorial Air Park adjacent to Meacham Airport in north Fort Worth in June 2013. (The park was later renamed Fort Worth Aviation Museum.) The manner in which the program was canceled led to years of litigation between the contractors and the

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

over breach of contract ( General Dynamics Corp. v. United States). On 1 June 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the U.S. Navy was justified in canceling the contract. The ruling also required the two contractors to repay the U.S. government US$1.35 billion, plus interest charges of US$1.45 billion.

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

, which had merged with McDonnell Douglas, and General Dynamics vowed to appeal the ruling. In September 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would hear the two companies' arguments, that the government canceled the project improperly and that the use of the state secrets privilege by the U.S. prevented them from mounting an effective defense. In May 2011, the Supreme Court set aside the Appeals Court decision and returned the case to federal circuit court. In January 2014, the case was settled with Boeing and General Dynamics agreeing to pay $200 million each to the U.S. Navy."UPDATE 1-Boeing, General Dynamics reach $400 mln A-12 settlement with U.S. Navy".
Reuters, 23 January 2014.

Specifications (A-12 Avenger II)

A-12 Avenger comparative aircraft size NAN11-90

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * Boyne, Walter J. ''Air Warfare: An International Encyclopedia, Volume 1''. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2002. . * Jenkins, Dennis R. ''Grumman A-6 Intruder – WarbirdTech Volume 33''. North Branch, Minnesota: Specialty Press, 2002. . * Mahnken, Thomas G. ''Technology and the American Way of War''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. . * Polmar, Norman., and Robert Stan Norris. ''The U.S. Nuclear Arsenal: A History of Weapons and Delivery Systems Since 1945''. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2009. . * Richardson, Doug
''Stealth Warplanes''.
Osceola, WI: Zenith Imprint, 2001. . * Richeson, Jim
"Coming Soon to a Carrier Near You: Avenger".
''Naval Aviation News'', December 1990. pp. 14–19. * Senior, Tim. ''The Air Forces Book of the F/A-18 Hornet''. Osceola, Wisconsin: Zenith Imprint, 2003. . * Stevenson, James P. ''The $5 Billion Misunderstanding: the Collapse of the Navy's A-12 Stealth Bomber Program''. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001. . * Thomason, Tommy H. ''Strike from the Sea: U.S. Navy Attack Aircraft from Skyraider to Super Hornet, 1948 – present''. North Branch, Minnesota: Specialty Press, 2009. . * Yenne, Bill. ''Weapons of the 21st Century''. New York; Avenel, New Jersey: Crescent Books, 1993. .

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II McDonnell Douglas aircraft A-12 Flying wings Stealth aircraft Carrier-based aircraft Cancelled military aircraft projects of the United States United States military scandals Tailless delta-wing aircraft Twinjets Aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear