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

AIR SUPERIORITY
Wild Weasels in elements of two, weaving back and forth below and behind
the bombers and their electronic countermeasiires escorts to deter MiG
attacks.'" These tactics were quite effective.
Escorting strike missions over North Vietnam, however, was still difficult.
The use of laser-guided bombs reduced the number of strike aircraft
in raiding formations, allowing more planes to fly protection against MiGs.
The use of newly developed chaff clouds-instead of bursts-also reduced
the threat of North Vietnamese SAMs and antiaircraft guns. However,
laser-guided bombs-though they could not be jammed as were radioguided
weapons in earlier wars-were not effective when the weather was
poor. And chaff clouds, which formed protective lanes for U.S. strike aircraft,
did not cover the F-4s which placed them, so that North Vietnamese
antiaircraft forces quickly learned to target chaff-carrying aircraft before
they dispersed their chaff loads.101 The real counter to the U.S. interdiction
effort that began in May, however, was the NVAE From March through
June, U.S. planes shot down twenty-four MiGs and lost eighteen of their
own aircraft in air-to-air encounters. In June, however, MiG-2 1s began
carrying four (as opposed to two) heat-seeking missiles. and MiG-17s and
-19s began carrying such weapons for the first tirne.lo2 U.S. planes found
themselves dodging both ground-to-air and air-to-air missiles, and the
The Lang Giai railroad bridge (sixty-five miles from Hanoi) after an F-4
strike in May 1972.
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