Vietnam Air Defense Tactics

The United States have been using Air Defense Tactics dating back to World War II. What started out as 50. Caliber machine guns firing into the sky has developed into missile to missile interception. Although the transition has been rather short, there has been multiple steps leading up to the systems that we use today. During the late 1960s, the US Military was faced with obstacles that we have never faced before during the Vietnam War. One of our systems proved not only to be combat effective, but also versatile, adaptable, and ready to deploy in austere environments. The United States entered the Vietnam War slowly throughout the 1950s. To prevent communism from spreading, the United States deployed approximately 540,000 troops in 1969 to south Vietnam. Although the United States withdraw their troops by the year 1975, ultimately leaving south Vietnam to fall under control to the north, they learned that they could use their systems as two dimension systems as opposed to the traditional one dimensional. The M48 Chaparral was the first surface-to-air (SAM) operational mobile weapon ever fielded by the United States military. The Chaparral could …show more content…
The Vulcan already proved that it was capable of intercepting jets in the sky was then mounted onto the body of the ASP M113, granting it mobility. While mounted the Vulcan was capable of two separate rates of fire, the high rate of fire could fire at 3,000 rounds per minute, while the low was capable of firing at 1,000 rounds a minute, both rates of fire had the option of a 10, 30, 60, or a 100-round burst. The M163 had a full 360-degree traverse providing the much needed defense from all angles. Equipped with a range only radar, there was not guidance system to assist the gunner when engaging targets. Able to travel up to 40 mph on land, the M163, could also travel 4 mph through water, proving again its