Cat and A4's this is incredibly interesting and if the history lesson could continue for just a bit longer I had three questions.
#1 - where are the tankers on the above plan? I am assuming with the point of an alpha strike you would launch light on fuel and heavy on weapons and plan to refuel to your require amounts in the air. Are they just a given factor and thus not included on the map plan. Also how long does that/did that take to fuel everyone before proceeding with the mission?
#2 - the Ironhand sections, did they work like current SEAD packets and knock down corridors for everyone else to squeeze through or did they just slam anything that they could get a shot at? I would imagine with all that aluminum in the air the guys in the north or anywhere that they shot at you must have been drooling watching their radar.
#3 - would more than one carrier launch an alpha strike at once and you guys just simply mass mob the north?
Thanks for sharing, again very interesting.
Good questions. Off the top of my head (remember, it's been a few years), and A4s can certainly comment authoritatively, here are some quickie answers:
1. The gas-hog fighters launched 1st with a full load of gas. We went overhead, joined the tanker (either a whale A-3 off the ship or out of Da Nang, or an A-6 tanker off the ship) at 15k. We usually took on about 2k+ – regardless of weapon load-out, air-to-air or both air-to-air and ground - which is about what we burned just to get up there. Depending upon how the A-strike rendezvous was going, we either left the tanker and joined the massing strike group just as they were departing their overhead rendezvous …. Or if late, stayed on the tanker as the tanker followed the departing strike group then accelerated to join them when tanking was complete.
Going feet dry, we were nearly topped off (16k). As we came out, there was usually an emergency tanker standing by just feet-wet if we needed it – which we sometimes did, and sometimes desperately. But most often, we could recover with an open deck without refueling upon return. But there always was another tanker overhead, if needed.
Bombers rarely if ever tanked; figthers - either in a fighter, or air-to-mud role - always tanked at least once, if not twice.
2. The Ironhand was the same as SEAD, but there was no such thing as a "corridor" – they just tried to slam anything that came up that was the most threat …. And they were extremely 'busy''. They also developed some wonderful "tricks" …….. that still work (I would guess) and that are therefore beyond the 'scope' of this forum.
3. Only one carrier would launch an Alpha Strike at any one time. And we coordinated with the Air Force so a Navy Alpha Strike would never occur during an Air Force strike. We alternated windows. [It was frustrating to see MiGs launch to engage the Air Force on their strikes, and to see the MiGs retreat and land during Navy strikes… but not too surprising.]