1967-08 The PECM mission

One 17 August an RVAH-12 RA-5C was lost over the Gulf of Tonkin while conducting an electronic surveillance mission. See 670817 RA-5C lost to unknown causes- both crewmembers KIA for specific information on this flight.

A lot of electronic surveillance missions were flown in August. The RA-5C was a versatile reconnaissance platform. One special capability was its ability to serve as a electronic ferret, collecting information on electronic emitters via the AN/ALQ-61 Passive Electronics Countermeasures (PECM) Set. This function was later termed Electronic Search, and still later, SIGINT, or Signals Intelligence.

The RA-5C generally carried fuel cans instead of bombs in the internal bomb bay. There was room for three such fuel containers, each carrying around 2000 pounds of fuel.

The ALQ-61 was quite an extensive and specialized piece of equipment and was used infrequently. So it was decided to install the ALQ-61 in place of one of the bomb bay cans in one squadron aircraft. Aircrews liked having that extra 2000 pounds of fuel!

As with the Side Looking Radar, the use of the ALQ-61 was generally incompatible with the use of other imaging sensors. Long straight tracks at high altitude were most effective at triangulating emissions from NVN early warning radar and ground control intercept equipment. Naturally, these were flown out over the Gulf to avoid direct fire. A PECM flight usually consisted of two or three straight tracks, oriented more or less north and south over the Gulf. Charlie Buffkin and I were tasked with flying 6 such missions during the month, far more than any other comparable period during our deployment. Once can speculate that the increased number of PECM missions was believed necessary to track the new assets being integrated into the NVN air defenses.

Next: 1967-08-13 First loss