Vietnam Air War 1965-72
The South East Asia War (more commonly known as the Vietnam War) was a product of the aftermath of WW2. After the surrender of the Japanese occupying force, the Viet Minh communist guerrillas, who had fought against the Japanese, declared independence for Vietnam. America, fearful of communist encroachment, supported the restoration of the old colonial power and French administration was reinstated.
Following a crushing defeat at Dien Bien Phu the French agreed to a ceasefire in 1954 and Vietnam was officially divided into a communist north and an independent south. Conflict between the two soon led to the Americans lending an increasing amount of material and advisory assistance to the military forces of the Republic of South Vietnam.
Tensions increased and in 1964 US carrier aircraft mounted several strikes against the North in retaliation for guerilla attacks on American ships and air bases. Within months American ground troops arrived in South Vietnam, and with the help of massive uncontested air-support took on the Viet Cong guerrillas. South Vietnam was physically divided from the North by the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) and US ground troops would not cross that line. The justification for the war was to stop communist encroachment in Southeast Asia, escalation was a whole other can of worms, so the only way to teach the North a lesson was by airpower alone.
Facing the Americans were around a hundred Soviet designed jet fighters along with thousands of anti-aircraft guns and hundreds of surface-to-air missiles. The US plan was to stage a series of escalating strategic strikes designed to destroy the North’s ability to support the Viet Cong and to make their leaders see the error of their ways; and ultimately sue for peace. The plan was to be fatally compromised by the White House who imposed strict political control on every facet of the campaign; including choice of targets (President Johnson boasted that the Air Force “can’t even bomb an outhouse without my approval”). They also defined large areas of North Vietnam as off-limits and imposed protracted periods of pauses and ceasefires in which offensive action was not allowed (though the notoriously wet and stormy weather of Southeast Asia also put a limit on operations to a large degree).
Rolling Thunder
In 1965 the Rolling Thunder bombing campaign against North Vietnam was initiated and in a sobering first raid by USAF F-100s, F-105s and B-57s supported by RF-101s five aircraft were lost to AA fire. Soon after, American planes began to clash with their counterparts in the North Vietnamese People’s
Army Air Force (VPAAF). The Americans always had far more planes than their opponents, the NVPAAF averaged around one hundred aircraft at any one time, however, several factors helped to even up the odds. USAF aircraft were based in the far off but safe haven of Thailand, several hundred miles from their targets, and each US air strike had to be accompanied by scores of support planes such as tankers (a mission could involve several inflight-refueling stops) radar jammers, Wild Weasel defence suppression planes, forward air controllers, chaff dispensers, helicopter rescue and MiG combat air patrol. The North Vietnamese could use their radar to track every movement and vector their fighters to the most advantageous position. Though many of the American planes were fitted with radar the crew could only fire at a target if they had a positive visual ID on it; MiGs were small and almost impossible to spot beyond a couple of miles. Most limiting of all, until late in the campaign, political considerations meant that the main cities of Hanoi and Haiphong, plus a wide buffer zone bordering China, and worse of all every enemy airbase, were strictly out of bounds for fear of causing casualties amongst Russian and Chinese ‘advisors’.
North Vietnam was divided by the Americans into a series of Route Packages, numbered from I to VI (the latter sub-divided into VIa and VIb). The higher the number, the more lucrative the target, but the more dangerous the mission. For the USAF, the burden fell mainly on the F-105 Thunderchief. ‘Thuds’ flying out of Thailand would approach RP VI by looping round from the north in order to use the radar and SAM cover provided by the high rugged Karst ridges that points towards Hanoi. Chief among these was Thud Ridge.
Yankie Station
America’s giant aircraft carriers operated from Yankie Station in the Gulf Of Tonkin, less than 200 miles from their targets, and their aircraft could make a more direct approach straight off the sea. The US Navy ended up flying the majority of sorties over North Vietnam, 52% as opposed to 43% by the USAF and 5% by the Marines. Typically, a carrier would have two squadrons of F-8s (F-4s on the giant nuclear carriers) and three or four squadrons of A-4 attack planes, though to begin with one of the squadrons could instead be A-1 Skyraiders or A-3 bombers. Towards the end of the war a large carrier would operate two F-4, one A-6 and two A-7 squadrons. Added to a carrier’s complement would be a dozen or more support types such as reconnaissance, ECM planes and tankers. The Marines tended to use their carrier types to fly from land bases just south of the DMZ.
North Vietnamese tactics were aimed at spoiling the US effort, forcing the attackers to drop their bombs before reaching the target, whilst avoiding losing MiGs if at all possible. Communist pilots gradually became more aggressive and willing to mix it with the Americans, thirteen VPAAF pilots eventually became aces. Notably effective were the masses of radar-aimed anti-aircraft guns and Soviet SA-2 surface-to-air missiles which formed a deadly air defence network The missiles were not particularly accurate, for instance they managed to shot down thirty Phantoms during the war whereas thirty-three F-4s were destroyed by MiGs, but they could cause the Americans to become cautious and liable to panic at the mere mention of SAMs. AA gunfire proved the most deadly enemy accounting for 307 Phantoms in 1966 alone.
Rolling Thunder rumbled on at enormous cost for over two years, to little positive effect. Severe damage was caused, but the North Vietnamese simply re-doubled their efforts. With pressure mounting on both sides preliminary peace talks were convened in Paris and the bombing of the North was halted.
Linebacker
After four years of fruitless wrangling the Americans decided to resume bombing over North Vietnam in 1972 in a campaign called Linebacker. US strength had been reduced in the intervening years but reinforcements, including new models, were soon flown in. The aim was to cut off North Vietnam from the rest of the World, to destroy its stock piles of military equipment and stop it heading south to support the Viet Cong. Bombing restrictions were loosened and when the North Vietnamese launched the Tet offensive in spring B-52s were diverted to attack enemy troop concentrations north of the DMZ, the first time the giant bombers had ventured into North Vietnam. They were soon unleashed against the high value targets around Hanoi and Haiphong that for years had only been attacked by fighter-bombers and carrier attack planes. Communist air opposition increased but could not stop the destruction. Over one hundred bridges were knocked down and over three-quarters of the North’s war supplies were destroyed forcing the Communists back to the peace table. Bombing of the North was once more suspended.
After two months of yet more fruitless negotiations the Americans resumed a virtually unrestricted bombing campaign named Linebacker II. In eleven days in December B-52s flew hundreds of sorties in which factories, barracks, bridges, railways and power plants were pounded to dust. Fifteen B-52s were shot down but electric power generation had been cut by 80%. Haiphong harbour was rendered unusable by air-dropped mines, all of the North’s SAMs were fired off. This time a peace treaty was agreed, America was desperate to get out and the North had been battered almost to the point of submission. The US withdrawal from Vietnam leaving the defence of the south to the Vietnamese. In 1975 the North launched a massive invasion and without US air support South Vietnam was overrun in four weeks.
Aircraft of the Vietnam War
As had happened before in our story, the most modern of aircraft were asked to fight a war for which they were not designed; gun-less fighters conceived as long range bomber destroyers were forced to take on nimble enemy fighters at short range, nuclear bombers had to try to take out precision targets using iron bombs, and high-tech attack planes were thrown in against ancient anti-aircraft guns. The US Navy fared better as carrier aircraft have to be more flexible and able to take on a variety of roles. Navy pilots were trained to rely on old fashioned pilot skill whereas the USAF put greater faith in technology.
The North Vietnamese Air Force knew they could not compete in terms of quality or quantity, so they relied on fleeting hit and run attacks by their fighters (the swift MiG-21 was well suited to the task), swarms of surface-to-air missilery and massed anti-aircraft artillery. Though the first of these were sometimes roughly handled by the Americans, they proved too elusive to completely eliminate. The threat from the second could be alleviated to a certain degree but the third, the deadly ‘Tripple-A’, was far too numerous.
Though the main opposing fighters were supersonic it was rare for combat to take place at speeds faster than mach 1. Supersonic flight was avoided as it dramatically reduces a plane’s manoeuverability and more importantly uses fuel at a tremendous rate - which meant that slower aircraft such as the MiG-17 could mix it with planes that had a much higher maximum speed.
By the mid-1960s it was thought that the air-to-air missile had signaled the end of the gun-armed fighter. In Vietnam it was soon discovered that this was far from the case and the early heat seeking missiles used, the US AIM-9 Sidewinder and its Soviet copy the AA-2 Atoll, had a hit ratio of one in seven at best. Various factors contributed to this failure; the missiles were originally meant to target lumbering bombers and they found it hard to keep locked on to hard turning fighters. They had to be fired from directly behind the target - the only place the seeker head could detect the heat generated by the jet engine, and a lack of discrimination meant they had a tendency to go after the sun or the heat bouncing off the ground.
The radar guided Sparrow fared even worse, its biggest asset of long range was negated by the US rules of engagement dictating a launch only when a target was visually identified, by which time it was often well within the missile’s minimum range. The Sparrow was guided to its target by the firer’s nose-mounted radar so during the whole flight-time of the missile the aircraft had to keep pointing at the target. The hot and humid conditions in South East Asia played havoc with the missile’s delicate electronics and malfunction rates were high. Worse still in terms of performance were the Falcon heat-seeking and radar-guided missiles used in small numbers by the F-102 and the F-4. Both the Americans and the North Vietnamese had to resort to strap on cannon pods for their main fighters.
Mikoyan Guryevich MiG-21
The design was based on the experiences of the Korean War and the MiG-21 was conceived as a simple but fast and manoeuverable pure dogfighter. The most modern and capable of the North Vietnamese People’s Army Air Force planes, the MiG-21 came in three flavours. Due to the marginal nature of the design, weight limitations meant that the MiG-21F had limited fuel and could only be fitted with two 30mm cannons. It was developed into the MiG-21PF able to carry two heat-seeking missiles and a small nose-mounted radar, but weight considerations meant that the cannons had to be removed. Finally, the MiG-21PFMA was introduced, armed with four missiles and space for a 23mm twin-barrel gun pack fitted to the plane’s belly.
At first the MiG-21 was flown with great caution by the NVPAAF pilots until a build up of experience and confidence led to a more aggressive stance. Around 200 MiG-21s were supplied to North Vietnam. It’s estimated that eighty-five were lost (sixty-seven to USAF F-4s, two to B-52s, thirteen to Navy F-4s and three to F-8s). The US admitted to losing nearly sixty planes to MiG-21s. Top MiG-21 pilot was Nguyen Van Coc with nine kills.
Jianjiji J-6
Chinese built copy of the MiG-19, the first Soviet fighter capable of supersonic flight. China supplied the North Vietnamese with a small number in 1971. The US claimed to have shot down ten before the end of the war. Armed with three powerful 30mm cannons and a pair of heat-seeking missiles.
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F
An improved MiG-15 with a sharper swept wing and a much more powerful engine, the MiG-17 was one of the best subsonic fighter planes. Though much slower than enemy fighters the MiG-17′s superior agility made it a tricky opponent in a close quarter dogfight. A flight of four scored the NVPAAF’s first victories when they bounced four F-105s shooting down two. Armed with three 23mm cannons each with 80 rounds, but not able to carry missiles, it was still the preferred mount of many of the best Communist pilots. The NVPAAF received around 100 MiG-17s, the first arriving a year before Rolling Thunder.
McDonnell F-4 Phanton II
The most versatile and best overall fighter of the Vietnam war was originally designed as an all-weather fleet defence interceptor for the Navy. The role demanded a long range, very high speed and a goodly collection of air-to-air missiles (to reduce trips back to the carrier to reload) plus a second crewman to take care of the advanced avionics, weapons computer and large radar. The result was such an outstanding plane that the USAF swallowed its pride and pressed it into service as their standard fighter. Armed with four Sparrow radar-guided missiles (intended to take out enemy bombers before they could fire anti-ship missiles at the carrier) plus four Sidewinder heat-seeking missiles for shorter range action, but no gun as the designers thought that modern missiles had obviated the need. Experience soon showed that the missiles were not up to scratch when it came to actual combat and though it was less accurate than a firmly fixed internal gun a strap-on gun pod was introduced as a stop-gap. Eventually the F-4E with internal M61 six-barrel 20mm Vulcan was introduced from 1968 but didn’t see action till the Linebacker campaign where it scored half of its kills with the gun. Including all versions of the F-4, around half of victories were by Sparrow, a third by Sidewinder and the rest by gunfire. Carrier aircraft have to be multi-role so the Phantom was also able to carry a heavy bomb load of 16,000lbs, more than a World War Two B-17 heavy bomber.
The Phantom flew every type of mission for the USAF, US Navy and US Marines; from MiG combat air patrol, escort, fighter-bomber, level bomber, flak suppression, Wild Weasel and armed forward air controller, and in its RF-4 guise as a very effective reconnaissance plane. F-4s shot down as many enemy aircraft as all other US types combined, however 43% of US planes shot down by MiGs were Phantoms.
Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter/Tiger II
In 1965 twelve F-5s with USAF markings, and dubbed the Skoshi Tigers, operated over Vietnam on an evaluation project. Their missions included 900 sorties over North Vietnam. The project was deemed a success and the South Vietnamese Air Force was equipped with the (unsubtly named) Freedom Fighter and improved Tiger II.
The F-5 was built as a lightweight cheap supersonic fighter which America could give or sell to developing countries friendly towards the USA. Armed with two 20mm cannons and two Sidewinder heat-seekers, the F-5 could also carry a reasonable bomb load.
Vought F-8 Crusader
Though not the most modern of jets the F-8 was the principle fighter and fighter-bomber of both the Navy and the Marines at the start of the conflict. Fast and manoeuvrable, the F-8 also had the tremendous advantage for carrier take off and landings of a wing able to lift up at the leading edge by 7%. Armed with four 20mm cannons, four Sidewinders mounted on the fuselage sides and in the fighter-bomber role, a decent bomb load.
F-8s shot down twenty enemy aircraft but lost eighty-three, many to SAMs. The RF-8 shared reconnaissance duties with the far more sophisticated, and expensive, RA-5C.
North American F-100 Super Sabre
The ‘Hun’ was the West’s first supersonic fighter and a contemporary of the MiG-19. Though nearing obsolescence it was still an excellent fighter-bomber able to take on as many roles as the more celebrated F-4. The two-seat trainer version pioneered the Wild Weasel mission for the USAF. Armed with Four 20mm cannons and up to 6,000lbs of bombs.
Convair F-102 Delta Dagger
The Deuce was a Delta-winged radar-armed interceptor able to carry up to six missiles (a mix of radar-homing and heat-seekers) but no gun. Selected for the night/bad-weather airbase defence role in South Vietnam and Thailand, they saw little action over the North and were soon replaced by the F-4.
Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
Like the MiG-21 the F-104 was conceived during the Korean War but came out as a completely different sort of bird. It had the smallest wing of any fighter, which gave it scalded-cat-like acceleration but the manoeuverability of an elephant riding a shopping trolley. The F-104 was not in USAF service for long and only one squadron saw limited action in Vietnam early on. Armed with the M61 20mm Vulcan multi-barreled cannon and two Sidewinder heat-seeking missiles.
Republic F-105 Thunderchief
Dating from the mid 1950s the F-105 flew more missions and suffered more losses over North Vietnam (over 400 including twenty one destroyed by enemy fighters) than any other plane. These losses represented more than half those built. For a single-seat plane the Thud weighed the same as the B-17 heavy bomber, and three times that of Republic’s WW2 equivalent the P-47 Thunderbolt. Its main mission was meant to be tactical nuclear bombing and it was able to fly supersonically at sea level. Though fitted with a bomb bay (for the nuclear bomb) this was normally occupied by an extra fuel tank so iron bombs were carried on wing-mounted pylons. The internal M61 six-barreled Vulcan cannon had a 1000 rounds and the Thud normally also carried a radar-jamming ECM pod and Sidewinder heat-seeking missile.
The two-seat F-105G was kited out as the USAF’s principle Wild Weasel plane, carrying four anti-radar missiles and extra ECM pods.
General Dynamics F-111
Nicknamed ‘Aardvark’, the F-111 suffered a disastrous introduction to combat operations before becoming the most effective all-weather long range penetration bomber in Vietnam. Packed with electronic wizardry (including terrain following radar for ground hugging flight) and with a variable sweep wing to taper performance to speed and height, the F-111 was originally meant to be a fighter-bomber, hence the F designation. It was eventually turned into a bomber with a large internal bomb bay, but no gun, and designed to fly completely autonomous solo missions. A detachment designated Combat Lancer began operations in 1968 but in six weeks half of the original six had disappeared. The cause was later found to be a structural failure and the type was withdrawn. It returned for Linebacker and the two squadrons, each of twelve F-111s, flew 4,030 missions out of Takhli proving it to be an amazingly elusive (pre-stealth) and deadly accurate bomber.
Douglas A-1 Skyraider
The ultimate piston-engined carrier attack plane was designed during WW2. The single-seater Spad was very effective during the Korean War and in Vietnam was flown by the Navy, Marines, USAF and South Vietnamese Air Force. Used in many roles, one of its most celebrated guises was as an escort/flak suppression for search and rescue helicopters (with call sign Sandy). Able to haul up to 8,000lbs of bombs on its surprisingly agile airframe, Navy Skyraiders even managed to shoot down a couple of MiG-17s with their four 20mm cannons.
Douglas A-3 Skywarrior
1952 saw the first flight of the largest aircraft to be part of the regular complement of aircraft carriers. The A-3 was meant to act as the fleet’s nuclear bomber, with a crew of three and two tail mounted remotely fired 20mm cannons for self-defence. The cannons were removed in the many special derivatives of the Skywarrior, and though the standard A-3 with conventional bombs only saw service in Vietnam at the beginning, its reconnaissance, ECM and tanker conversions operated throughout the war.
Douglas A-4 Skyhawk
One of the legendary Douglas designer Ed Heinemann’s greatest aircraft, the Scooter single-seater attack plane was so small it could dispense with folding wings for carrier stowage. Nearly 3,000 were built and the A-4 saw action with the Navy and Marines from the start. Most were armed with two 20mm cannons. Some operated as early Wild Weasels and it was the main mount of Marine forward air controllers.
Grumman A-6 Intruder
The aptly named Intruder was the Navy’s subsonic equivalent of the F-111, able to fly solo all-weather precision bombing missions. The Iron Tadpole operated from carriers, and also by the Marines from land bases, and though it experienced problems with its state-of-the-art electronics, was able to take on (and survive) missions that would have proved impossible to any other Navy aircraft. The KA-6D was a tanker version. The EA-6A Sky Pig was an ECM plane introduced by the Marines, but the Navy used the EA-6B Prowler, a much more advanced electronic warfare platform which added a crew of four ECM Officers in an enlarged cabin behind the cockpit
Vought A-7 Corsair II
Though intended for the same role as the A-4, and also single-seat, subsonic and armed with two 20mm cannons; the A-7 was a vastly more capable machine, particularly in terms of electronics, range and bomb load. The SLUF (Short Little Ugly Fella in the bowdlerised version) first saw action over the North in 1967 with the Navy and Marines and was also the main Navy SAM buster. Like the Phantom, the Air Force also produced their own version of the A-7, though this only reached Vietnam in the last few months of the war.
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
America’s eight engine monster of a strategic nuclear bomber operated in the main out of the island of Guam during the war and managed to plaster Vietnam and its neighbours with three times the weight of bombs dropped during the whole of World War Two. At first they were not used against North Vietnam. The value of hitting large areas of jungle, which may or may not have contained enemy guerillas, may be questioned but for Linebackers I and II they were finally unleased upon the North’s industrial and transport infrastructure with devastating results.
For defence the BUFFS or Big Ugly Fat ‘Fellas’ were armed with a host of electronic countermeasures gear (which worked best when B-52s combined their efforts) and four radar directed tail mounted 0.5″ machineguns. Two MiG-21s were shot down by B-52s. Twenty nine were lost during the war.
Martin B-57 Canberra
The B-57 was an improved Canberra but with a tandem-seat cockpit rather than side-by-side as in the original. The USAF had cast around for a tactical bomber in the mid-1950s and discovered that the British Canberra was by far the best candidate. Unlike the British plane it was fitted with four fixed 20mm cannons. The B-57s long endurance, multifarious weapon hard points (including an internal bomb bay) and great manoeuverability made it ideal for the forward air controller mission. ECM and reconnaissance (RB-57) versions also gave outstanding service in the early part of the war. Eight Australian Canberras, based on the British gun-less B.2 model and without the American wing hard points, were sent to Vietnam in 1967 and proved to be extremely accurate bombers, though they operated almost exclusively against Viet Cong guerrillas. The B-57s left Vietnam at the end of 1967.
North American OV-10 Bronco
A joint USAF and Marine project for the forward air controller (FAC) role. The twin-propeller Bronco was nippy and could be armed with two 7.62mm machine guns plus up to 3,600lbs of bombs or cannon pods. Marine FACs were camouflaged dark olive, USAF light grey.
North American RA-5C Vigilante
The RA-5C started life as a very big supersonic carrier attack bomber. The bomber version was not in service for long but its reconnaissance derivate was the most advanced tactical reconnaissance plane in Vietnam. Over 100 unarmed RA-5Cs were built.
McDonnell RF-101 Voodoo
The original F-101 was designed as a long -range escort but its role changed to nuclear armed fighter-bomber before it entered service. Though a large plane, its small wing helped it to be fast. However, the small wing also meant it was not much good at going round corners. The F-101 did not go to Vietnam but the RF-101 version was the main USAF reconnaissance plane until the introduction of the photo Phantom. The mission was fraught with danger as it demanded flying in a straight line for long periods. The choice was fly low to avoid the SAMs and MiGs but get hit by the anti-aircraft artillery, or avoid the AAA and get nailed by the SAMs and enemy fighters. RF-101s could expect to suffer damage from enemy fire on every other mission.
Grumman EC-1A
The twin engine propeller-driven EC-1A was an electronic countermeasures version of the Tracker anti-submarine warfare plane and flew from US carriers.
Douglas EB-66 Destroyer
The B-66 version of the Navy’s A-3 bomber was disappearing from the Air Force inventory and none saw action in Vietnam. However, the electronic warfare version was for many years the only dedicated USAF ECM plane in Vietnam. The EB-66 housed four tons of electronic equipment and its exterior was studded with dozens of antennas, chaff dispensers, receivers, flares and additional jammers. The RB-66 reconnaissance model was also widely used.
Douglas EF-10 Skyknight
The US Navy’s first carrier jet nightfighter dated from the end of the 1940s and was designated F3D. Soon after the Korean War thirty five were converted to some of the first electronic warfare jets. These were still being used by the Marines until the end of the war in Vietnam.
Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker
Developed from the Boeing 707 passenger airliner. Eventually a fleet of several hundred KC-135 aerial refuelling tankers plied their trade over the skies of Vietnam and neighbouring Thailand. Over 31,000 US gallons of fuel, enough to fill a whole squadron of Phantoms, could be pumped out at 1,000 gallons per minute.
Search And Rescue Helicopters
The Vietnam War could be described as the first helicopter war; by its end the US Army’s inventory made it the world’s third largest air force. One of the main, and most dangerous, helicopter missions was the rescued of downed aircrew.
The ubiquitous UH-1 Iroquois ‘Huey’ (from the original HU-1 designation) was used by all three services but more important were the larger and more capable helicopters introduced during the course of the war. Based on the Navy’s H-3 Sea King, the HH-3 Jolly Green Giant used by the USAF was armoured and had facilities for in-flight refuelling enabling it to reach anywhere in South East Asia. The Marines used their enormous assault helicopter the 38-passenger CH-53 Sea Stallion. The Air Force eventually replace their Jolly Green Giants in the SAR mission with their own version of the powerful CH-53 designated the HH-53 Super Jolly. This was first used in 1968 and had extra armour, improved avionics, 7.62mm Miniguns, and even ejection seats for the pilots! The Navy employed the H-2 Seasprite and the original SH-3 Sea King with its 250 foot cable winch.
US helicopter designations can be slightly confusing, with different designations for Air Force, Navy and Marines plus Sikorsky ‘S’ series numbers. The Sea King for instance has a veritable alphabet soup of titles; S-61, H-3, HH-3, CH-3, SH-3 and HSS-3.
The SAM Threat
In 1960 a single S-75 Dvina surface-to-air missile (SAM) shot down Gary Powers in his U-2 spyplane over Russia. Designated SA-2 Guideline in NATO parlance, this ‘telephone pole’ sized missile was guided to its target by a Fan Song radar mounted on a big trailer. In Vietnam a SAM battery usually consisted of six launchers connected to a single search radar which acquired the targets before passing them on to each missile’s own Fan Song. Though nominally mobile, it took several hours to set up the missiles and vehicles in their distinctive star-shaped emplacements. Batteries tended to move overnight to a different position in order to make it as difficult as possible for the Americans.
The Vietnamese eventually used thousands of SA-2s against US planes and although continuous improvements in American counter measures reduced their effectiveness - hit rate went down from over 5% to less than 2% - they were always a threat that could not be ignored. At times they seemed almost to have exerted a psychological grip on some US crew. In 1967 SAM sites were afforded top priority as targets for US planes; any SAM detected had to be attacked no matter what the aircraft’s assigned target. With a range of up to 50km and maximum speed of more than three times the speed of sound, the SAM was lethal if it’s proximity fuse triggered the warhead when within 60m of an aircraft. Electronic jamming or, if the missile was spotted, hard jinking (the Funky Chicken manoeuvre in the vernacular of the times) or diving directly at the oncoming missile were effective countermeasures, but attack is often the best form of defence and the Americans devised the Wild Weasel plane to take on the SAMs.
Wild Weasel planes (Iron Hand in Navy parlance) were normally two-seaters or converted from two-seat trainer versions of single-seaters. They were equipped with as much electronic countermeasures gadgetry as could be accommodated and two to four anti-radar missiles (ARM), usually AGM-45 Shrikes as the more effective, but much more expensive, AGM-78 Standard ARM was only sanctioned if a kill was more or less guaranteed. The ARM worked by locking on and then homing in on the SAM’s Fan Song radar whose destruction rendered the missiles impotent.
The SA-2 was longer ranged and faster than a Shrike so the Wild Weasel had to approach too well within the SAM’s range. The faster SAM could try and take out the attacker before a Shrike was launched, or switch off its radar, thus causing both ARM and SAM to lose their guidance and miss, or could indulge in a deadly game of ‘chicken’. ARMs would often be lobbed, more-or-less at random, in the hope of inducing the battery’s radar operators to switch off. However, some Wild Weasel crew pursued the more aggressive ‘down the throat’ attack at short range and low level in an effort to take-out the threat. More SAM batteries were destroyed by this method but Wild Weasel losses were correspondingly higher.
Wings at War is series of wargames rules for recreating air combat using Vapour Trails 1/600th scale aircraft models.
