Operation Bolo
| Operation Bolo | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Vietnam War | |||||||
 F-4 Phantom II | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| United States Air Force | North Vietnamese Air Force | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 14 F-4C Phantom IIs | MiG-21 'Fishbeds' | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
None killed None wounded | Seven confirmed killed, two probable | ||||||
Operation Bolo was an air battle fought in the skies of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on January 2, 1967 during the Vietnam War.
Bolo marked the revival of the dogfight, pitting the new American F-4 Phantom II air superiority fighter against the Soviet-designed Mikoyan MiG-21 interceptor. The American victory against the Vietnam People's Air Force prompted Soviet tacticians, as well as North Vietnamese pilots and strategists, to reconsider their deployment of the MiG-21.
Background
In 1967, the F-4 Phantom II had been in service with the United States Navy for about eighteen months. The newest fighter in American service, the F-4 had powerful engines, excellent handling, and a weapons load of eight air-to-air missiles. However, the Phantom suffered from one critical weakness – the lack of an internal cannon, as fighter doctrine at the time dictated that air combat would occur at beyond visual range with air-to-air missiles. The F-4’s missile armament consisted of the AIM-7 Sparrow and the AIM-9 Sidewinder. Although the short-range AIM-9 was an effective weapon, the use of the beyond visual range AIM-7 was constrained by Rules of Engagement which required visual confirmation of a target before firing – essentially defeating any advantage that the missile would have conferred to the American pilots.
The F-4’s primary adversary during this engagement was the Soviet-built Mikoyan MiG-21 ‘Fishbed’, which like the F-4 was on the cutting edge of fighter design. Armed with the Vympel K-13 missile, it was quick, agile, and easily able to down its primary target – the F-105 Thunderchief. Typically, the MiG-21 was used in hit-and-run tactics; being vectored by Ground Control Intercept (GCI) at an altitude below US radar surveillance to an intercept position to the vulnerable rear of an American strike formation and then climbing and executing a missile attack and then diving away before the fighter escorts could intervene. this became very effective through December of 1966. Even if the intercepting MiG did not score a kill, often times several aircaft would be forced to jettison their bombloads to evade the attack thereby causung a "mission kill".
The MiG threat
The agility of the MiG-21 and the Vietnam People's Air Force tactic of high speed slashing attacks from astern under GCI control posed a significant challenge to American pilots, who had become predictable by staging large formation strikes from Thailand flying roughly the same routes and times of day allowing the VPAF to challenge them with a relatively small force of 15 MiG-21 fighters used as point defense interceptors. The Air Force relied mostly on missiles to down enemy pilots and constrained by their Rules of engagement and a fleeting adversary that only engaged when the situation was ideal, many American pilots were not even able to use this to their advantage. If the MiG-21 was a significant threat to the Phantoms, it was an even bigger threat to the F-105 Thunderchief used to conduct attack and bombing missions in the North Vietnamese interior. Heavily laden and relatively sluggish compared to its adversaries, the F-105 was a favored target among VPAF pilots. During the bombing halt in 1968, the US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps instituted new training programs such as TOPGUN in order to better prepare their aviators for combat. Prior to that in late 1966, a result of increased North Vietnamese attacks and decreased kill ratios among American fighter pilots, the Air Force 8th TFW resolved to do something about the aggressive MiGs. The result was Operation Bolo.
Robin Olds
Colonel Robin Olds was the Commander of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing and an experienced fighter pilot who had become an ace in two missions over Europe in World War II. He was sent to Southeast Asia to revive the performance of the 8th TFW and he did so from the cockpit. After seeing the prevailing conditions and seeing the success of the MiG-21, he was convinced his pilots could take on the MiG-21 and prevail if they could be drawn into the air on even terms. As the primary architect of Operation Bolo, and he took advantage of the tendancy of the VPAF to target the F-105 strike formations using Gorund Controlled Intercept (GCI) tactics. His idea was relatively simple; substitute Phantoms armed with air-to-air missiles for the bomb-laden F-105 strike aircraft.
Operation Bolo (planning stage)
Olds’ battle plan was quite simple; make F-4s appear like F-105s on the radar and radio and draw out the MiGs. The planners for this event included Capt. John B. Stone, Lt. Joe Hicks, Lt. Ralph F. Wetterhahn, and Maj. James D. Covington. Working under the tightest security, those pilots would fly the missions themselves and would not be briefed until December 30th. The planners determined that, if the MiGs engaged in combat, their endurance from takeoff to landing would extend only for about 55 minutes. F-4 flight arrival times were set five minutes apart to ensure maximum opportunities for engagement. The group planned for a concerted strike by a "west force" of seven flights of F-4Cs from the 8th at Ubon and an "east force" made up of five flights of F-4Cs from the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing at Da Nang Air Base, South Vietnam. Everything hinged on getting the MiGs airborne, if they didn't take the bait, then the plan would not come to fruition. In order to deceive the North Vietnamese, they had to fly in the same flight pattern as the F-105 and use similar language on the radio. If the MiGs did come up, the F-4s had to make sure they believed they were engaging F-105s. They would have to fly in similar, if not identical formations to those used by F-105s, and carried the call signs of the F-105s, which many were car names, Olds, Ford, and Rambler (to name a few). But in order to pull it off, the F-4s needed one more device to get it right, the QRC-160 electronic countermeasures pod.
The QRC-160 was a jamming pod that the F-105s carried to avoid SAMs, and was a tell-tale sign of an impending F-105 attack. In order to trick the MiGs, the F-4s would have to carry the QRC-160 electronic countermeasures pod, which before this flight, had never been carried by F-4s. Once the F-4s were outfitted with the QRC-160 electronic countermeasures pod, the date was set for January 2, 1967. The entire 8th TFW was to be pulled into this operation, code named Bolo.
Olds Flight, wave one
The first attack by MiGs came early in the flight by a MiG-21. Olds wingman "Olds 02" scored the first kill by shooting the MiG with an AIM-9 Sidewinder. Seconds later, Captain Walter Radeker scored the second kill of the battle. Olds was not so lucky.
"The battle started when the MiGs began to get out of the cloud cover. Unfortunately for me, the first one appeared in my ‘six o’clock’. I think it was more an accident than a planned tactic. As a matter of fact, in the next few minutes many other MiGs started to exit from the clouds from different positions.
I was lucky. The flight behind me saw the MiGs and tried to divert its attention. I broke to the left, sharply enough to get away of his line of fire, hoping that my wingman would take care of him. Meanwhile another MiG came out of the clouds, turning widely about my ’11 o’clock’ at a distance of 2,000 yards. He went into the clouds again and I tried to follow.” said Olds. Olds got a lock and fired a Sparrow, but it failed to launch, he shot again and also fired an AIM-9.
But the MiG avoided all the shots Olds fired.
A third enemy plane appeared in my ‘10 o’clock’, from the left to the right: in simple words, almost in the opposite direction. The first MiG zoomed away and I engaged the afterburner to get in an attack position against this new enemy. I reared up my aircraft in a 45 degree angle, inside his turn. He was turning to the left, so I pulled the stick and barrel-rolled to the right. Thanks to this maneuver, I found myself above him, half upside down. I held it until the MiG finished his turn, calculating the time so that, if I could keep on turning behind him, I would get on his tail, with a deflection angle of 20 degrees, at a distance of 1,500 yards. That was exactly what happened. He never saw me. Behind and lower than him, I could clearly see his silhouette against the sun when I launched two Sidewinders. One of them impacted and tore apart his right wing.[1]
Olds lined up an AIM-9 shot and fired. The missile hit the MiG on the right wing and tore it off. The MiG went into a spiral and disappeared beneath the clouds, Olds’ second kill of the battle. The third kill is claimed soon after. Olds 04 flown by Capt. Walter S. Radeker III, with 1st Lt. James E. Murray III in the back spotted a MiG tracking Olds 03 and closed in. Radeker tries to get a good tone on the missile lock, but finds it near impossible, but then gets it. One Sidewinder away, it struck the MiG behind the tail and sent it into a spiral. Olds flight had scored three kills for no losses of their own. Then the next flight came in.
The “Ford” flight arrives
_2.jpg)
The next wave was called Ford flight and picks up five minutes after Olds leaves. They were commanded by Colonel Daniel "Chappie" James, Jr., who did not score a victory. However he witnessed another victory made by Captain Everett T. Raspberry. The following is his account of the engagement:
"At 15:04 my flight was attacked by three MiGs, two from the ‘10 o’clock’ and one from the ´6 o’clock´. Initially I didn’t see this last one because I had been concentrating on those approaching head-on. My WSO excitedly warned me about this rapidly approaching MiG, which was within firing range of my #3 and #4. I hesitated a while before interrupting my attack against the two MiGs in front, because I had seen the ‘Olds’ flight passing below us a few seconds before. I thought that the plane seen by my WSO could be one of them. Despite that, I suddenly turned left and then right, and caught sight of the third MiG. I ordered to my numbers 3 and 4 to break right. As they did so, the MiG broke left for some mysterious reason and for a split second we were side by side. We were so close that, besides the red stars in his wings, I could clearly see the pilot’s face. I began a horizontal barrel roll to get away from him and into an attack position, once in position, I launched a Sidewinder. The missile missed because the evading MiG broke left at full throttle. But when he did it, he put himself in the line of fire of my number 2, Captain Everett T. Raspberry. I ordered him to follow the prey, because the two aircraft that I initially saw had been placed in my forward sector. I was in an advantageous position, so I fired two AIM-9s against them in a quick sequence, and I turned to place myself as wingman of my #2, Captain Raspberry. […] I kept on descending besides Captain Raspberry and I remember that I thought that he was still out of the optimal launching envelope. But he performed a barrel roll that placed him in a perfect position again and he launched an AIM-9 which hit against the tail section of the MiG-21. It was shaken violently and later fell in a slow, almost plane spin.”[2]
To put in better terms, James was attacked by a MiG-21 from behind. He executed a horizontal barrel roll and got behind his attacker. The MiG-21 now became a target, and James fired an AIM-9 but it was evaded by the MiG. However this maneuver put the MiG in front of his wingman, Ford (02), who shot the MiG down with a missile hit behind the cockpit. After Raspberry got his kill, Ford flight left the scene with once again, no U.S. losses, partially due to increased maneuverability of the F-4 at 17,000 ft.[3]
Round Three, Rambler takes their turn
It was time for Rambler flight to make their mark in Operation Bolo. Captain John B. Stone was the leader of Rambler flight, and when they got to their destination, he spotted two (of what he would later learn) MiG-21s streaking through a break in the clouds. He dives and fires an AIM-7 sparrow, to his amazement the missile does not fire. Unfazed, he shoots again this time with a good shot and gets his kill on one of the MiGs. Then a Third MiG jumps him from behind, but using a joint maneuver with “Rambler 02” he put the MiG in line of fire of Philip P. Combies (“Rambler 04”). He saw the battle in this way:
"We flew at 13,440 feet (4,800 meters) above sea level and our speed was 540 knots. A little bit after completing a turn to the northwest, we identified a patrol of four MiG-21s in spread formation at a distance of 5 miles –about 8 kms- at ‘2 o’clock’ and below than us. Two more MiGs appeared 2 miles –about 3 kms- behind. . . . When the MiGs crossed in front of Stone, he started to follow, breaking left and losing height. Due to that, the flight spread wide to the right, and I found myself higher and somewhat to the right than the others. I kept the throttle to the minimum during the first phase of the combat. So, the MiGs broke to the left, and the engagement began. I choose one of the MiGs and followed him with my radar. I don't think that we ever exceeded 4 g during the whole engagement. I decided to follow the Navy pilots' tactics - at close range foregoing the radar tracking, but looking thru the reticle instead. When I realized that I was in the right position, I pushed the fire button, released it, pushed it again, and waited. I did not even see the first Sparrow. However, I followed the entire trajectory of the second one, from launch to impact. I fired the missiles at less than 2,000 yards from the MiG’s tail, height 9,800 feet (3,500 meters) and turning to the left. The second one hit the tail section of the enemy aircraft. A second later I saw a huge, orange ball of fire."[4]
Seconds later, another MiG-21 crossed the line of fire of the F-4C Phantom “Rambler 02” and was apparently destroyed by a Sparrow fired by its pilot, Lawrence Glynn. The MiG is hit in the area behind the tailfin and explodes in a fireball, what ever wreckage is left falls to the ground. This, the third MiG-21 downed by “Rambler” flight, raised the final score of the day to 7:0 in favor of the American pilots. Suddenly an SA-2 SAM missiles shoots through the overcast sky. Rambler, wanting to say and get more MiGs, makes a break for it as telephone pole size SA-2 SAM missiles start shooting through the clouds. The next 11 flights see no action, the MiGs soon learn what is going on and make a run for it; however the F-4s get a hell of flight, trying to avoid the SAMs coming up at them. In total, they didn't get into fights with MiGs, but the operation had ended with out a hitch.
Mission stats and a total victory
Operation "Bolo" had a successful beginning. The table that follows summarizes the day’s victories:[5]
| Unit | Aircraft | Pilot | WSO | Missile | Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 555 TFS, 8 TFW | F-4C | Lt. Ralph F. Wetterhahn | J.Sharp | AIM-7 | MiG-21 |
| 555 TFS, 8 TFW | F-4C | Capt. Walter S. Radeker III | 1st Lt. James E. Murray III | AIM-9 | MiG-21 |
| 555 TFS, 8 TFW | F-4C | Col. Robin Olds | C. Clifton | AIM-9 | MiG-21 |
| 555 TFS, 8 TFW | F-4C | Capt. Everett T. Raspberry | R. Western | AIM-9 | MiG-21 |
| 433 TFS, 8 TFW | F-4C | Philip P. Combies | L. Dutton | AIM-7 | MiG-21 |
| 433 TFS, 8 TFW | F-4C | Capt. John B. Stone | C. Dunnegan | AIM-7 | MiG-21 |
| 433 TFS, 8 TFW | F-4C | Lawrence Glynn Jr. | L. Cary | AIM-7 | MiG-21 |
As the F-4s headed home and landed, the ground crew waited for them near the taxi way. As each of the planes cockpits opened, the pilots showed with their fingers how many kills they'd gotten, 1 and/or 2. Each time a plane passed by and a pilot showed how many kills he'd gotten, the place exploded in cheers. They had a very, very good reason to cheer the way they did: out of the 16 MiG-21s sent into Vietnam, seven were confirmed shot down and two more were probably shot down in Operation Bolo. That left at most nine MiG-21s still around in North Vietnam. Operation Bolo was to this day, one of the greatest ruses and air engagements military aviation. To the American pilots, Bolo was a much needed victory.Bolo also inspired the 7th Air force to plan a similar smaller mission that used F-4C's to masquerade as recon planes. On January 6, two F-4C Phantoms flew the route of a routine unarmed RECCE mission that was likely to be challenged by MiGs. They got intercepted by 4 MiGs and two were downed during the encounter. For the North Vietnamese and the Soviet advisors who supplied the MiG-21 aircraft and helped set up the GCI network, the two one-sided aerial engagements brought about great confusion resulting in grounding of the MiGs for several months for retraining and devising of new tactics.
Sources:
- ^ Zampini, Diego (2003). "Robin Olds Mastermind of Operation Bolo". Acepilots.com. Retrieved 2006-12-08.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|month=and|coauthors=(help) - ^ Zampini, Diego (2003). "Robin Olds Mastermind of Operation Bolo". Acepilots.com. Retrieved 2006-12-08.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|month=and|coauthors=(help) - ^ Boyd: The Fighter Pilot who changed the Art of War, by Robert Coram, page 215
- ^ Zampini, Diego (2003). "Robin Olds Mastermind of Operation Bolo". Acepilots.com. Retrieved 2006-12-08.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|month=and|coauthors=(help) - ^ Zampini, Diego (2003). "Robin Olds Mastermind of Operation Bolo". Acepilots.com. Retrieved 2006-12-08.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|month=and|coauthors=(help)
- futurshox.net - aviation photography (Picture source for the F-4 and MiG-21)
- Operation Bolo MiG Sweep by Walter J. Boyne
- History Channel video clips
- Cockpit photo of MiG-21 kill
- Kunsan Air Base -- How It Was...8th Fighter Wing (1974-Present)
- Operation Bolo (Korean)
- Hill Aerospace Museum - General Electric AN/ALQ-71 Electronic Countermeasures Pod
- [1]
