Fighter+Jets+of+Vietnam+WSE

The MiG 21 was the rarest aircraft the Vietnamese had. During a dogfight they would come in for two seconds and fire all their missiles, then leave. The Vietnamese air force only had 40 aircraft in their fleet and all of them were provided by the Soviets. Some of the Soviets went into the Vietnamese air force to help win some of the dogfights.

The Vietnam War was the first war in which jets were used, instead of propelled aircraft. The American F-4 Phantom II was the most common jet the Americans used. The Phantom was the ultimate doomsday device. The Phantom had everything you can imagine on it except for one thing that the Americans should have put on it, a machine gun. The Phantom was the best fighter jet in the war. The Phantom almost won every dogfight it was in except for some with Soviet fighter aces.

An ace is a pilot that has killed five or more enemy aircraft. A double ace is some one who as killed 10 enemy planes and so on. The American F-105 Thunderchief was considered to be the workhorse of the Vietnam War though. It was a one seater instead of two seats like the Phantom. “Thud”, nicknamed by the Thunderchief crew, was a fighter bomber. The special thing about this aircraft was all of the ones made had a single nuclear bomb in the inner chamber.Two F-105 pilots were awarded the Medal of Honor for attacking a missile site and wiping away a quarter of the Vietnamese Air Force and also shooting down two MiG 17 jets earlier that day. The aircraft was a narrow fast jet. Its part in the war was to fly low and fast, drop the nuclear bomb and get away from the explosion. As the pilot of an F-105 aircraft, Lt. Col. Thorsness was on a suppression mission over North Vietnam. Lt. Col. Thorsness and his wingman attacked and destroyed a surface-to-air missile (SAM) site with air-to-ground missiles, and then destroyed a second surface-to-air missile site with bombs. In the attack on the second missile site, Lt. Col. Thorsness' wingman was shot down by intensive antiaircraft fire, and the 2 crewmembers abandoned their aircraft. Lt. Col. Thorsness circled the falling parachutes to keep the crewmembers in sight and report their position to the Search and Rescue Center. During this maneuver, a MIG-17 was sighted in the area. Lt. Col. Thorsness immediately started an attack and destroyed the MIG. Because his aircraft was low on fuel, he was forced to leave the area in search of a fuel tanker. Upon being informed that 2 helicopters were circling over the downed crew's position and that there were hostile MlGs in the area suggesting a serious threat to the helicopters, Lt. Col. Thorsness, despite his low fuel condition, decided to return alone through a hostile environment of surface-to-air missile and antiaircraft defenses to the downed crew's position. As he approached the area, he spotted 4 MIG-17 aircraft and immediately started an attack on the MlGs, damaging 1 and driving the others away from the rescue scene. When it became apparent that an aircraft in the area was critically low on fuel and the crew would have to abandon the aircraft unless they could reach a tanker, Lt. Col. Thorsness, although critically short on fuel himself, helped to avert further possible loss of life and a friendly aircraft by recovering at a forward operating base, thus allowing the aircraft in emergency fuel condition to refuel safely. By doing this he earned a Medal of Honor. Everybody says he went over the call of duty.

The MiG 17 was a knock off of the MiG 15 but it had something new about it, a swept wing. A swept wing is a wing swept back so it looks like a boomerang. The LOCKHEED SR-71 Blackbird was the fastest jet in the whole war. The jet was only used for reconnaissance missions. The top speed is Mach 3.3 or 2511.96 miles per hour. The MiG 17, 21, and 15 were all lighter and more maneuverable. A Phantom and “Thud” had a better armament, (better weapons), and was faster.

The U.S. pilots had more experience than the Vietnamese pilots. The Vietnamese pilots were trained by the Soviets but did not have basic instinct. A Dogfight is a battle that takes place in the air. Dogfights, to the pilots, seem like forever but they usually only last between 15 seconds or 30 minutes. The longest Dogfight was only 31 minutes. His actions are still mentioned at TOPGUN. TOPGUN is a air school for the best of the best air fighters. Air Combat Command's B-52 is a long-range, heavy bomber that can perform a variety of missions. The bomber is capable of flying at high subsonic speeds at altitudes up to 50,000 feet. It can carry nuclear or precision guided conventional ordnance with worldwide precision navigation capability. It is highly effective when used for ocean surveillance, and can assist the U.S. Navy in anti-ship and mine-laying operations. Two B-52s, in two hours, can monitor 140,000 square miles of ocean surface. Pilots wear night vision goggles to enhance their vision during night operations. Night vision goggles provide greater safety during night operations by increasing the pilot's ability to see clear terrain, avoid enemy radar and see other aircraft at night. The use of aerial refueling gives the B-52 a range limited only by crew endurance. It has an unrefueled combat range in excess of 8,800 miles.

A surface-to-air missile (SAM) or ground-to-air missile (GTAM) is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft. It is a type of anti-aircraft gun. Land-based SAMs can be deployed from fixed installations or mobile launchers. The smallest SAMs are capable of being carried and launched by a single person. These types of SAMs are also referred to as Man-Portable Air Defense Systems. Soviet ManPADS have been exported around the world and can still be found in many of their former client states. Other countries have developed their own ManPADS. Land-based SAMs are deployed on mobile launchers, either wheeled or tracked. The tracked vehicles are usually armoured vehicles specifically designed to carry SAMs. Larger SAMs may be deployed in fixed launchers, but can be towed/re-deployed at will. Ship-based SAMs are in widespread use. Virtually all surface warships can be armed with SAMs. Naval SAMs are a necessity for all front-line surface warships. Targets for non-ManPAD SAMs will usually be acquired by air-search radar, and then tracked before/while a SAM is "locked-on" and then fired. Potential targets, if they are military aircraft will be identified as friend or foe systems before "lock-on". Development of surface-to-air missiles began in Nazi Germany during late World War II with missiles such as the Wasserfall though no working system was deployed before the war’s end.