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Re: U.S. aircraft in Vietnam appear to have been extremely vulnerable to AAA
One has to look carefully at the various missions before drawing conclusions about vulnearbilty to AAA. The Thuds were dominantly in RP6 with arguably the most intensly concentrated AAA (small arms up to 23mm plus mostly radar tracking 37, 57 and 125 mm) and Sam's, as well as MiG's - all coordinated by BARLOCK radar system. The BARLOCK and gun laying and Fan Song Radar nets around the Sam sites created a hellacious interlocking defense capability.
The introduction of Weasels had a dramatic effect on both loss rates and target bombing effectiveness. The fast movers in the South (F-100's, some A4's, some F-4's) were subjected to lesser AAA (and less sophisticated) than around Hanoi.
Steve was right about the overall per sortie loss rates but the preponderance of the high percentage losses were F-105s before the Weasels came to play in 1967.
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" The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
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