[Llarry]

U.S. Navy attack aircraft and squadrons were designated VA, but the introduction of the A-6 led to a differentiation in some documents as VAL (light attack: A-4 Skyhawk and A-7 Corsair) and VAM (A-6 Intruder). (The heavy attack category {VAH} occupied by the A-3 Skywarrior and A-5 Vigilante was already phased out.)

The plot thickened when the light attack A-7 was replaced by the F/A-18 Hornet. The admiral who came up with that awkward designation later explained that what he intended was that the Hornet could be either an A-18 in the attack role or an F-18 in the fighter role. At the time, Congress was refusing to pay for enough expensive F-14 Tomcats to fully replace the F-4 Phantom in the VF squadrons. Therefore, the F/A-18 was meant to replace both the A-7 VAL aircraft AND the F-4 VF aircraft.

In the end, though, a reduction in the number of carrier air wings, along with increased buys of the F-14, meant that all Navy fighter squadrons flew the F-14. That meant that the F/A-18 really assumed the attack role and, by extension, that it should have been designated as A for attack.

Muddying the waters, the Marine Corps turned down flying the F-14 -- they did not want to spend their limited funds on such an expensive airplane, particularly since they were set on buying the AV-8A Harrier V/STOL attack plane at the time. The Marines wanted the F/A-18 Hornet to be both fighter and attack, just like their F-4 Phantoms had been. The last Marine pure fighter squadrons (VMF) had been F-8 Crusader squadrons years before. The F-4s and then the F/A-18 were therefore Marine Fighter Attack Squadrons (VMFAs).

The Navy initially followed the Marine Corps example, and the first Hornet squadrons were designated Fighter Attack Squadrons (VFA). But then considerable criticism of the Hornet arose: The Vought A-7 Corsair attack plane equipping the VAs had excellent range and endurance. The Hornet, with its powerful -- and fuel-guzzling -- afterburning turbofans, was widely derided in the fleet as having deficient range. The solution was a classic bureaucratic maneuver -- instead of "fighter attack" planes, the F/A-18 were declared to be "strike fighter" planes. The squadron designations stayed VFA. Thus, the Navy's F/A-18 Hornet and later Super Hornet squadrons were all Strike Fighter Squadrons (VFAs) and remain so to this day. The advent of the F/A-18E and F Super Hornets helped the range capability somewhat, but U.S. Navy carrier air did not have the reach that it once had.

The fleet could console itself that, despite the lack of range of the VFAs, at least the A-6s had excellent capability to reach far out and touch someone. But in the 1990s, that capability went away with the retirement of the A-6 medium attack aircraft, leaving U.S. Navy carriers lacking in the capability to conduct long-range attack missions. In a sense the carrier air wing became all fighters and the attack capability was compromised.

There are always work-arounds, of course, and aerial refueling has become ever more important as the years have gone by. In the 1950s, aerial refueling was developed but was still somewhat rare. By the 1960s it took on greater importance and the Middle East wars really emphasized refueling in air given the great distances from the carrier decks to Iraq or Afghanistan.

To complete the story, the Marine Corps bought three squadrons of UK Harriers and loved them. For some years, the Marine attack squadrons were those few AV-8A Harriers and A-4 Skyhawks. The Marines then replaced all of those with the improved AV-8B Harrier for an all-V/STOL attack force. More recently, the Marines have totally embraced V/STOL (or STOVL) with the F-35B and are on their way to an all fighter force themselves. The Navy is in the process of replacing a third or so of their Super Hornets with the F-35C carrier-suitable version of the F-35. It must be admitted that the F-35 has excellent attack capability, so in that sense one might conclude that the aircraft type "attack" is obsolete and in the modern era a "fighter" is a high-performance aircraft that can duel with other aircraft and/or attack surface targets with equal aplomb.