The Historic Thanh Hóa Bridge Raid: A Historic Lesson in Adaptive Air Combat and The Cost of Getting It Wrong.
Apr 09 2018 - 0 Comments
By Tom Demerly
4 April, 1965. Above Thanh Hóa, (then) North Vietnam.
It was like trying to hit a needle in a haystack, kill a fly with a sledgehammer, or whatever analogy you prefer for using brute force to apply surgical precision in the middle of a swirling ambush.
By analogy and history, the attack on Dragon’s Jaw is a bizarre mismatch of weapons to mission. It is another hard lesson for U.S. air power in the ‘60’s. Several decades of evolving doctrine and aircraft development have led the U.S. Air Force in a different direction from how air wars will actually be fought in the future. Instead of long range strategic nuclear attack, tactical precision anti-insurgent strike is the emerging mission. The U.S. will continue to learn that hard lesson on this day.
https://theaviationist.com/2018/04/09/the-historic-thanh-hoa-bridge-raid-a-historic-lesson-in-adaptive-air-combat-and-the-cost-of-getting-it-wrong/
