AIR POWER HISTORY SPR 97 VIETNAM HO CHI MINH TRAIL SOVIET PILOTS IN KOREAN WAR B-38

VIETNAM WAR: TARGETING THE HO CHI MINH TRAIL

ATOMIC BOMBS, BUDGETS AND MORALITY: USING THE STRATEGIC BOMBING SURVEY

SOVIET PILOTS IN THE KOREAN WAR

LESSONS IN AIR POWER FROM PEARL HARBOR ATTACK 1941

BOEING / VEGA B-38 - The XB-38 Flying Fortress was a single example conversion of a production B-17E Flying Fortress, testing whether the Allison V-1710 V type engine could be substituted for the standard Wright R-1820 radial engine during early World War II.

--------------------------------

On 14 December 1964, the U.S. Air Force's (USAF) "Operation Barrel Roll" carried out the first systematic bombardment of the Hồ Chí Minh Trail in Laos.  On 20 March 1965, after the initiation of Operation Rolling Thunder against North Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson approved a corresponding escalation against the trail system. "Barrel Roll" continued in northeastern Laos while the southern panhandle was bombed in "Operation Steel Tiger".

By mid-year the number of sorties being flown had grown from 20 to 1,000 per month. In January 1965, the U.S. command in Saigon requested control over bombing operations in the areas of Laos adjacent to South Vietnam's five northernmost provinces, claiming that the area was part of the "extended battlefield".  The request was granted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The area fell under the auspices of "Operation Tiger Hound".

Political considerations complicated aerial operations. But the seasonal monsoons that hindered communist supply operations in Laos also hampered the interdiction effort. These efforts were hindered by morning fog and overcast, and by the smoke and haze produced by the slash-and-burn agriculture practiced by the indigenous population. During 1968 the USAF undertook two experimental operations that it hoped would worsen the monsoons. "Project Popeye" was an attempt to indefinitely extend the rainy season over southeastern Laos by cloud seeding. Testing on the project began in September above the Kong River watershed that ran through the Steel Tiger and Tiger Hound areas. Clouds were seeded by air with silver iodide smoke and then activated by launching a fuse fired from a flare pistol. Fifty-six tests were conducted by October; 85% were judged to be successful. President Johnson then gave authorization for the program, which lasted until July 1972.

Testing on the second operation, "Project Commando Lava", began on 17 May: scientists from Dow Chemical had created a chemical concoction that, when mixed with rainwater, destabilized the soil and created mud. The program drew enthusiasm from its military and civilian participants, who claimed that they were there to "make mud, not war." In some areas it worked, depending on the makeup of the soil. The chemicals were dropped by C-130A aircraft, but the overall effect on North Vietnamese interdiction was minimal and the experiment was cancelled.

Defoliation

In December 1965 the USAF began its first Operation Ranch Hand defoliation missions against the trail in Laos using both Agent Blue and Agent Orange defoliants. More than 210 missions took place, spraying approximately 1.8 million litres of defoliants. Unlike Laos, the trail in Cambodia was not systematically targeted for defoliation, although more than ten missions were mounted against the Parrot's Beak area, spraying approximately 155,000 litres of Agent Orange.

Of all the weapons systems used against the trail, according to the official North Vietnamese history of the conflict, the AC-130 Spectre fixed-wing gunship was the most formidable adversary. The Spectres "established control over and successfully suppressed, to a certain extent at least, our nighttime supply operations".  The history claimed that allied aircraft destroyed some 4,000 trucks during the 1970–71 dry season, of which the C-130s alone destroyed 2,432 trucks.

VAH-21, nicknamed the Roadrunners, was a short-lived Heavy Attack Squadron of the U.S. Navy, based at Naval Station Sangley Point, Philippines. The squadron flew the specialized AP-2H version of the Lockheed P-2 Neptune aircraft, of which four examples were converted from standard SP-2H airframes.