#f 100f

F-100F Wild Weasel I.

F-100F’s were chosen as the first Wild Weasels. But we’re not fast enough to keep up with the strike force

Forget the sleek digital icons of video games. Early Radar Warning Receivers (RWRs) didn’t show you the threat; they only made you listen to it. In an F-100F "Misty," radar warning came as a raw, rhythmic crackle fed straight into the pilot’s headset. The crews called it the "Rattlesnake." It was the unpolished, terrifying audio of a Soviet SA-2 Fan Song radar beginning to paint your aircraft. 1/2

On this day: 60 years ago, specially modified F-100s conducted USAF’s first "Wild Weasel" mission of the Vietnam War (December 1, 1965). During this mission, F-100Fs located and attacked a North Vietnamese Fan-Song radar, while accompanying F-105s bombed a nearby SAM site. These coordinated attacks against missile sites came to be known as Operation Ironhand.

As soon as you heard the "Rattlesnake," the clock started ticking. The Fan Song radar needed roughly 75 seconds to lock and fire, giving you a frantic window to hunt the source. It was literally a death race: put a Shrike or a Mk 82 on the site before the SA-2 targeting you cleared the rail. A lethal game of hunt or be hunted, where your ears were just as important as your eyes. 2/2

The AN/APR-25 Wild Weasel system on the F-100F definitely showed the aircrew the threat. It was equipped with a crude azimuth scope that indicated, relative to the aircraft, the threat's location.

F-100F Super Sabre at Bien Hoh AB. These were the first aircraft picked for the Wild Weasel mission in Vietnam. However they were not fast enough to keep up with the Strike Force so The F-105F/G was pressed into service.