High Tech Surveillance in Vietnam War - Igloo White

[chopper2004]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfNMm9f8mc4

Interesting example of the high tech war as it was back then in SEA. Though @17.09 probably the first generation of computer Visual Display Units, probably no bigger than the first gen of home PCs a decade or two later.

Amazing the infrastructure needed - from EC-47, OP-2H Neptunes, to EC-121 Warning Stars and unmanned QU-22B Pave Eagle etc etc

Cheers

[AtomKraft]

Indeed, the whole Igloo White project was quite a thing back in the day.

There were ground penetrating seismic listening probes, microphones hanging in the jungle canopy and who knows what else.

The positions of all these were 'known' and attacks on trucks and other ground targets were targeted in this way.
I believe the Viets though, were fond of moving the sensors around, which was a bit unsporting of them as well increasing the CEP of the strikes quite dramatically.

Here was a project crying out for GPS.

Fascinating stuff for the day though. Defeated in a very non- technical way. Like most of the US technical applications of that time.

[BBadanov]

Amazing the infrastructure needed - from EC-47, OP-2H Neptunes, to EC-121 Warning Stars and unmanned QU-22B Pave Eagle etc etc

...and the OV-1 Mohawk.

Well, back in early 1970 I was TDY down in the delta at Ca Mau, with some FACs flying the O-1. I have previously related how I met a Brit mercenary who went out in the field with ARVN long range patrols. One evening he took me into the local village to the regional CIA guy's house for a great bbq with all the CIA wives.

When we stumbled back to the base in his jeep, we stopped at a sand-bagged bunker which was set up to receive downlinked surveillance video being transmitted from an OV-1. The Grumman OV-1 Mohawk was a twin-engine observation aircraft, and was modded with some type of underwing imaging pod, to downlink this (not very clear) mono imagery to the small TV type screens we had back then. The imagers could have been SLAR, or IR (UAS-4 possibly). (Reflecting on this, the imagery may not have been downlinked in real time, it may have been that they were looking at video tapes brought back from a mission, but I seem to remember it as real time.) The analysts were looking for any VC sampans or activity along the river banks to pass on for targeting the next morning. Not bad, for 45 years ago.

[AtomKraft]

Bbadanov.
Not sure if the Mohawk was involved in Igloo White. It had it's own sideways looking system in that long pod on one side of the fuse. SLIR or SLAR- can't remember....

The OP-2 s did the sensor drops using some precision nav kit for accuracy. The QU-22s did radio relay.

Usual aircraft did the bombing...

Trouble was, sensors in wrong place equals bombs in wrong place.

Very ambitious program, but high tech in the jungle no workee- at least not against the resourceful and very determined NVA.