BusyBee, I remember a while back you posted about the Over the shoulder deployment, I got to meet General Joe Engle a few weeks ago and he confirmed the USAF did the same thing in the SAC in Europe. It got me wondering if this was ever used for conventional weapons and if so what kind of accuracy/target destruction confirmation did it afford? It seems like a pretty intense maneuver no matter what your carrying.
There were actually 4 different nuclear deliveries:
1.
High angle loft (O/S "Idiot Loop") - run in 100'-500kts, pullup to 4g in 2 sec., 1/2 cuban 8, release ~122 deg. nose up, over the top then when 45 deg. nose down roll 180 deg. upright & escape in the opposite direction at low alt. max speed. Wep. TOF 43 sec., gives max escape time, least accurate but w/ CEP of 700' (for an "E") more than accurate enough for the bigger booms.
2. Medium angle loft - requires visual IP an exact known distance from target, pre-determined time/distance IP to pullup set in timer, pullup exactly like O/S, but release at ~45 degrees nose up, then a hard wingover of 135 deg. in heading & escape at max speed. More accurate than O/S, but less escape time. Accurate enough for conventional weapons, but not used due to lack of good visual IPs, and low alt run in (small arms vulnerability).
3. Low angle loft - same as M/A above, but release at ~22 deg., also wingover departure. Most accurate of the 3 lofts, the only one I ever used in NVN (twice) for rippling off six MK-82 w/ good results, on a radar site with a good IP (very scarce). The only target we ever had, which had an IP to allow raining bombs on target accurately
without ever going feet dry,
Sam Son radar site, our very favorite target!!!
4. Laydown delivery - used for low-yield nuclear (parachute-retarded), or conventional (snake-eye retarded) weapons. Used normally for cratering runways, 500'/500kt. run in, bombsight aimed, very accurate, however; extremely vulnerable to small arms fire. Conventional laydown great for troop CAS & downed pilot support.
Hope this answers your questions, remember that the above is a snapshot of Light Attack 50 years ago when we had the dual mission of one leg of the nuclear triad (befor the boomers arrival), plus the conventional mission of the Vietnam air war. I'm sure it seems antiquated to cutting edge Warriors & their Hornets of today. Except for warrior spirit, it has all changed: Aircraft, equipment, weapons, tactics, enemies, threats etc. But ya' know, we were "cutting edge" back then, too!
*Sam Son Today!
BzB
