MiG-21 Aces of the Vietnam War (Aircraft of the Aces) by István Toperczer

Author:István Toperczer [Toperczer, István]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
ISBN: 9781472823571
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-09-21T04:00:00+00:00

On 22 September 1968 three MiG-21s were flying in the airspace over Military District No 4 when they were hit by RIM-8 Talos anti-radar homing missiles fired by the US Navy cruiser Long Beach. The fighter of Pham Thanh Ngan (pictured in cockpit) was only damaged, but Nguyen Van Ly and Vu Dinh Rang had to eject from their ‘Fishbeds’ (Nguyen Xuan At)

At this time most of the larger warships in-theatre were armed with RIM-8 Talos ship-to-air missiles, and the vessels moved in closer to the coast to improve their radar coverage of Military District No 4. The VPAF tried to attack them on five separate occasions, but achieved little for the loss of four MiG-21s. A fifth ‘Fishbed’ was claimed by the F-4B of Maj J P Hefferman and Lt(jg) F A Schumacher from VF-96, embarked in Enterprise, on 9 May, although it appears that their victim may have been either a communist Chinese jet or an aircraft from ‘Doan Z’, as there is no mention of it in VPAF loss records.

The remaining four MiG-21s were downed by Talos SAMs because their pilots were not sufficiently wary of the ships’ surface-to-air missile capability and ADF-VPAF radar was not sophisticated enough to detect the missiles in order to warn them. The first of these losses came on 23 May when Ha Quang Hung’s MiG-21 was downed by a Talos missile fired from USS Long Beach (CGN-9) – 105 km away – as he and Nguyen Van Coc were flying from Noi Bai to Tho Xuan. Hung ejected safely. On 26 June, another Talos from CGN-9 hit Vu Ngoc Dinh’s MiG-21 as he flew over Vinh airfield, and he too was able to eject. Finally, on 22 September, Nguyen Van Ly, Vu Dinh Rang and Pham Thanh Ngan were flying over Military District No 4 when Talos missiles (again from Long Beach, some 98 km away) hit all three MiGs. Ly and Rang had to eject from their stricken fighters, but Ngan’s was only damaged.

Despite these losses, VPAF HQ ordered the MiG units to send aircraft from their primary air bases in the north to airfields in the south in order to oppose US fighter-bombers and their escorts in Military District No 4. The US Navy typically sent formations of eight to twelve aircraft in two or three waves to attack targets on a daily basis, with each bomber being allocated an escorting fighter. The 921st FR duly sent MiG-21s from Noi Bai to Tho Xuan, from where they would attempt to intercept US Navy aircraft over the Do Luong area.

On the afternoon of 16 June newly qualified MiG-21 pilots Dinh Ton (who had claimed three Firebee drones destroyed since 15 April 1968) and Nguyen Tien Sam took off from Tho Xuan and flew at 250-300 m above Route No 15 at 800 km/h. By the time they passed over Nghia Dan they had climbed to 1500 m (4875 ft), and it was then that the command post reported enemy aircraft in their proximity.

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