Case Studies in the Achievement of Air Superiority - Air Force ...

SOUTHEAST ASIA
At the beginning of May, as U.S. air strength continued to build, and as
the North Vietnamese offensive seemed to be having some success, President
Nixon decided to mine Haiphong Harbor and to authorize air attacks
across all of North Vietnam. From May 9 through October 22, Seventh Air
Force flew interdiction sorties against Route Packages I. V, and VIA, while
Navy carrier-based sorties struck the other route packages. The Nixon
administration was determined both to halt the North Vietnamese invasion
and to convince the government of North Vietnam that the United States
was serious in its support of South Vietnam. There was-as at the end of
ROLLING THUNDER-a 10-nm restricted zone around Hanoi and a 5-nm
zone around Haiphong. But there were 3 important differences. First, all
U.S. strike forces now carried effective laser-guided gravity bombs; compared
with unguided ordnance, the accuracy of the new weapons was phenomenal.
Second, SAC B-52s began attacking targets in North Vietnam
below the 20th parallel, mostly at night. With the B-52s in action, USAF
forces could place more ordnance on targets (1 B-52G could carry as much
ordnance-more than 54,000 pounds-as 5 F-105s) and assault many targets
around the clock. The heavy bombers carried a ground-scanning radar
that could distinguish features such as airfields, bridges, and factories, and
with FAD and E escorts, the B-52s were relatively immune to MiG attack.
The NVAF had constructed a number of airfields south of the 20th parallel
before 1972, at Vinh, for example, and as far south as Dong Hoi, less than
50 nm from the Demilitarized Zone. Round-the-clock poundings closed
these fields, and aggressive hunter-killer patrols by F-4Es destroyed a number
of SAM radars and missile sites.’# Finally, the USAF redeployed
F-ll1A all-weather bombers to Thailand in September in order to supplement
day bombing raids on North Vietnamese supply lines in Route
Packages V and VIA.w This action gave the Seventh Air Force the capacity
to strike major North Vietnamese targets at all times and under all weather
conditions, an ability important not only to the interdiction campaign but also
if and when U.S. forces gained the freedom to bomb all the NVAF’s air bases.
To maintain air superiority in the areas near the major land battles,
Seventh Air Force made the 432d Tactical Fighter Wing, based at Udorn,
the primary theater counterair group. The veteran F-4 squadrons of the
432d were the 13th and 555th. Both had been at Udorn since early 1966.
They were reinforced by three other squadrons transferred from the United
States and the Philippines in April and July. Together, these squadrons were
charged with shielding the extensive ground support operations flown by
attack aircraft. During the day, the 432d’s F-4Es flew barrier patrols in
flights of four aircraft, using the “fluid four” formation first developed during
the Korean War. The fluid four pattern spaced two elements of two
aircraft each so that enemy fighters could not approach any element from
behind without being detected and intercepted by the other element. At
night, the wing’s Phantoms escorted B-52s, EB-66s, and F-105s flying as
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