The first air-to-air skirmishes in Vietnam exposed the dangers posed by the aging VPAF MiG-17. So the USAF turned to their brand new, cutting edge multirole fighter to dominate South East Asian skies. In May 1965 the now-legendary F-4C Phantom II entered the fray.
But the VPAF refused to meekly fly up and get shot by the mighty Phantom. They played hard to get. So the US Tactical Air Command devised a trap.
This video tells the story of how that trap unfolded and how two US aircrews unexpectedly found themselves with two MiG-17s on their tails. In telling it I deep dive into the first Air Force Phantom, a powerful aircraft that has been somewhat forgotten as later versions added feature and capabilities. But for the first two or three years of Rolling Thunder, the F-4C was THE Air Force Phantom. Half of the fleet were lost between 1965 and 1972. A fighter’s contribution.
I hope you enjoy the video. In making it I realised how little I knew about the details of the early Phantom. Getting to know it better has helped me understand air combat in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966 that little bit better.
Notes:
The engagement described is ‘I-6’ in the Red Baron Report
Amongst other sources, I particularly relied on ‘F-4 Phantom II, Part 1 F-4C, F-4D and RF-4C’ by Bert Kinzey
I cross checked the Vietnamese losses using ‘MiG-17 and MiG-19 Units Of The Vietnam War’ by István Toperczer
The best information I could find about the TI AAA-4 came from this forum post: [ Ссылка ]
