Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

AIRMEN VERSUS GUERRILLAS
Figure 58. SA-2 launch. American Airmen could avoid the Soviet SA-2
if they were alert and spotted them in time. (Reprinted from USAF.)
fenses and the mobility of the SAMs, which could be relocated
within hours. 20
One effort to counter North Vietnamese SAMs was standoff
ECM—aircraft crammed with electronics gear that orbited a distance
from the defenses and interfered with Communist radar
and SAM signals. The Marines employed EF-l0Bs in this role
between April 1965 and 1969. The Douglas Skyknight was ancient,
having first flown in 1948, and it saw action in the Korean
War as a night fighter. It was joined in the ECM role in late
1965 by another Douglas product, the Skywarrior, which first
flew in 1952. The Navy employed the twin-engine jet bomber
as an electronics warfare aircraft designated as the EKA-3B.
The Air Force adopted the Navy aircraft and used it in the
ECM role as the RB-66, later EB-66 (1966). It carried a crew
of seven, including four ECM operators in a crew compartment
fitted in the bomb bay (fig. 59). The US Air Force fielded three
versions in Vietnam, each model with different equipment and
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