F-105 Thunderchief MiG Killers of the Vietnam War by Peter Davies

Author:Peter Davies
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: F-105 Thunderchief MiG Killers of the Vietnam War
ISBN: 9781782008064
Publisher: Osprey Publishing Ltd

1967 – MiG MAYHEM

The high level of MiG activity at the end of 1966 and the loss of 19 US aircraft (including seven F-105s) to MiGs since April 1965 prompted an initiative within the 8th TFW at Ubon RTAFB that dealt the 921st FR MiG-21s a devastating blow. The latter unit’s tactics had become particularly aggressive in December 1966, and more than one-fifth of US strike aircraft had been forced to jettison their ordnance loads during that month.

Using a plan conceived by the 8th TFW tactics officer, Capt John B Stone, and the CO, Col Robin Olds, F-4C Phantom IIs, simulating the call-signs, flight patterns and attack routes of the F-105 wings, flew close to the MiG base at Phuc Yen emitting jamming signals from QRC-160 (AN/ALQ-71) ECM pods hastily borrowed from Thunderchief units. A US Navy team had previously approached the 355th TFW with a similar plan, using F-105s as ‘bait’ for their F-8 Crusader fighters. For the 8th TFW’s Operation Bolo, Takhli F-105s flew their usual Iron Hand sorties, sighting but not engaging MiG-21s. The MiGs rose to the bait and found Phantom IIs waiting for them above the dense overcast. Seven were shot down on 2 January 1967 (followed by two more in a similar ‘sting’ four days later) and the 921st FR effectively stood down for several weeks to revise tactics and re-train, having lost up to half of its operational MiG-21s.

Individual MiG-21s were occasionally seen flying parallel to strike formations, apparently observing them. Flights of MiG-21s approached F-105s several times during early January, but they broke away rather than engaging the USAF jets. On 16 January MiGs approached close enough to force F-105s to jettison ordnance, but generally they made distant, simulated approaches and withdrew if the F-105s turned towards them. Two flights of MiG-21s did make firing passes on Korat aircraft during the 21 January attack on Viet Tri railway yard, however, diving through the formation and forcing a ‘jettison’ order from the flight leader. Although the F-105s retained their Sidewinders, there was no chance to use them before the MiGs quickly vanished after what one Korat pilot described as a ‘very aggressive attack’.

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