The first Hueys to operate in Vietnam were medevac HU-1As that arrived in April 1962, before the United States became officially involved in the conflict. These Hueys supported the South Vietnamese Army, but American crews flew them. In October, the first armed Hueys, equipped with 2.75-inch rockets and .30 caliber machine guns, began flying in Vietnam.
The main role of these Huey 'gunships' was to escort Army and Marine transport helicopters. By the end of 1964, the Army was flying more than 300 'A and 'B model Hueys.
During the next decade, the Huey was upgraded and modified based on lessons learned in combat: Bell introduced the UH-1D and UH-1H variants.
It was in Vietnam that Army and Marine soldiers first tested the new tactics of airmobile warfare. In a typical air assault mission, Huey helicopters inserted infantry deep in enemy territory while Huey gunships, equipped with machine guns, rockets, and grenade launchers, often escorted the transports. Within minutes, helicopters could insert entire battalions into the heart of enemy territory - this was airmobility.
The Huey became a symbol of U.S. combat forces in Vietnam and millions of people worldwide watched it fly in TV news reports. At its peak in March 1970, the U.S. military operated more than 3,900 helicopters in the war in Vietnam and two thirds of them were Hueys. Their impact was profound, not only in the new tactics and strategies of airmobile operations, but on the survival rate of battlefield casualties. U.S. Army patients made up 390,000 of the total number of people transported by medevac helicopters in Southeast Asia. Almost a third of this total (120,000) were combat casualties. The Huey airlifted ninety percent of these casualties directly to medical facilities
UH-1A's armed with two .30 cal. machine guns and two eight-tube 2.75 inch rocket launchers were first used in late 1963. The UH-1A was armed with various combinations of 7.62mm machine guns, 20mm cannon, and a chin-turret mounted 40mm grenade launcher. Some early "Huey" gun ships were armed with quad M60C 7.62mm machine guns mounted on the M6 aircraft armament subsystem.
UH-1B/UH-1C "Hueys" were used with moderate success as a gun ship with door mounting M60D 7.62 machine guns on the M23 armament subsystem. They could also be armed with a pod or side-mounting six-barrel "Minigun" and seven-tube XM157 or XM158 2.75 inch (70mm) rocket launcher on the Emerson Electric M21 armament subsystem, and the M5 chin-turret mount for a 40mm grenade launcher. The UH-1B was also armed with two fixed-mounting M24A1 20mm cannon on the XM31 armament subsystem. The M60A1 reflex sight was used for sighting guns and rockets on the UH-1B, UH-1C, and UH-1M "Huey". With the fielding of the larger UH-1D as the Army's primary utility helicopter, the smaller UH-1Bs/UH-1Cs assumed the gunship role as their primary mission.
"Hogs" were "Hueys" equipped with side mounting 24 round 2.75 inch rocket launchers on the XM3 armament subsystem. Carrying a total load of 48 Folding-Fin Aerial Rockets (FFARs), the "Hogs" were used effectively in the combat assault role.
The Sikorsky S-58 was first developed as an anti submarine helicopter for the US Navy in the 50s as the HSS-1 Sea Bat ( with the US Department of Defense normalization of 1962 received the SH-34 core designation ) and like all other good helicopters was soon adapted to several missions. The US Army also operated them as CH-34 and HH-34 Choctaw for cargo and rescue missions and the variant of the US Marines were known as the HUS-1 ( later UH-34 ) Sea Horse.
On April 15, 1962 Operation Shufly was initiated when the HMM-362 ( US Marines Medium Helicopter Squadron 362 ) landed at a Japanese fighter strip 3 miles from Soc Trang, southwest of Saigon, in the Mekong Delta in the Republic of South Viet Nam. This was four months after the first american helicopters arrived.
Operation Shufly was set up as a multi-squadron rotation exercise. The plan was for a squadron to be deployed on a four-month rotation with four months in Okinawa ( Japan ), four months aboard ship, and four months in Viet Nam. Only the personnel were transferred: they received what equipment was already at the base.
The Sea Horse primary role was personnel and cargo transport. The aircraft were "slick" meaning that they had no weapons but by August 1962, M-60 machine guns were mounted inside the aircraft. Two machine guns were utilized: one for the crew chief, mounted at the main door and one mounted in the rear window on the opposite side for use of the gunner. Very often the pilot and co-pilot carried an AR15, which was the forerunner of today 's M16 rifle, next to their seat in the cockpit which allowed them to provide fire support if they were not on the controls.
The US Army, with a small unit deployed in Da Nang, had Bell UH-1B ( at that time HU-1B ) aircraft configured as gunships and would serve as escorts when there own commitments allowed. UH-1B aircraft for Marine use was still in the future; the UH-1E specialized Marines version of the Huey arrived in 1966.
The army UH-1B was a little underpowered for the role they were playing and must be remembered, was also an experiment for the US Army . The extra weight of several boxes of ammunition and the extra crew members to maintain a constant flow of ammunition and manning extra M-60 machine guns caused the UH-1B to be slow and with limited range. This was because of the need to cut back on the amount of fuel carried to allow for the extra weight. A strike of any distance would require a refueling stop for the UH-1B along the route while the UH-34 circled.
All these reasons, along with the limited amount of aircraft the army had, resulted in the Marine Corps Development Center at Quantico experimenting with some method of providing the Marine Corps a means of escorting themselves.
The method decided on was to arm the UH-34.
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UH-34s' were modified by mounting two fixed, forward firing M-60 machine guns attached to the landing gear on the right side and two 2.75" FFAR ( Folding Fin Aerial Rocket ) pods attached between the landing gear struts on each side of the aircraft. Both rear windows now had an M-60 machine gun installed and one in the door for the crew chief. The rockets' sighting system was very primitive but useable. It consisted of a grease pencil mark on the windshield and a cross hair welded inside a circle mounted to the instrument panel and windshield with nuts and bolts. The system required the cross hair in the circle be lined up with the grease pencil and the target. What it lacked in sophistication, it made up in reliability.
Pilots that flew them began to hit targets consistently, after a little practice.
The armed H-34s, called Stingers had only four aircraft modified. They were all assigned to HMM-365 commanded by Lt.Col. Joseph Koler and was the only Marine helicopter unit to utilize a piston powered helicopter as a gunship.
Many problems plagued the conversion and perhaps the mounting design was the major of them. With the rigid mounts, neither the machine guns nor the rockets could be aimed without the entire helicopter being pointed in the direction of the target. This made for some pretty unusual flying altitudes trying to line up the cross-hair with the dot by pointing the aircraft....and by the way...while, usually, presenting a pretty big bulls-eye for the target.
The UH-34 was a relatively large, slow aircraft and the target usually got some pretty good shots at the gunship. All these factors contributed to an unusually number of Stingers damaged by ground fire. The US Army solved this problem in later versions of the UH-1B by mounting their armament on swivels that could be aimed in a direction other than the one the aircraft was pointed.
In spite of all the limitations, the US Marines used the Stingers effectively and extensively but the days of piston powered aircraft were numbered and the decision was made to discontinue the experiment. Turbine powered aircraft was the future of helicopter warfare.
As soon as the US Army got some more armed UH-1Bs to Da Nang to support the marines increased flight operations, the Stingers were striped of their forward firing armament returning to a transport configuration and became but a footnote in history.
Helicopter weapons:
M2 .50 cal. Machine Gun. The Browning M2 machine gun was one of the most commonly used weapons of World War II and Korea. It was used both as an infantry weapon and fixed or flexible aircraft gun on bombers and fighters. The XM296 machine gun, used on the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, is the same as an M2, except it be fired remotely using an electrical solenoid. The M2 machine gun was also used on the XM32 and XM33 on the ACH-47A "Guns-A-Go-Go". The M2 is classified Standard A.
M2 .50 cal. Aircraft Gun. The Browning M2 aircraft gun was a. 50 cal. M2 machine gun that was modified for use as an aircraft gun that could be fired remotely by the pilot or gunner of a helicopter or light fixed-wing aircraft. The M2 machine gun had a rate of fire of 750-850 rpm. The M2 aircraft gun was classified Standard A.
M3.50 cal. Aircraft Gun. The Browning M3 aircraft gun was a.50 cal. M2 machine gun that was modified for use as an aircraft gun that could be fired remotely by the pilot or gunner of a helicopter or light fixed-wing aircraft. The M3 .50 cal. aircraft gun was used in the XM14 gun pod. The M3 machine gun had rate of fire of 1150-1250 rpm. The M3 aircraft gun was classified Standard A.
M24A1 20mm cannon. The M24A1 was a single-barrel fixed-mounted cannon used on the XM31 armament subsystem on the UH- 1B "Huey" and on the XM34 armament subsystem used on the ACH-47A armed/armored Chinook. The M24A1 had a firing rate of 650 rpm.
M37C Flexible .30 Cal. Machine Gun. The M37C was a light air-cooled .30 Cal. machine gun adapted for use on the XM1 /XM1E1 armament subsystem on the OH-13 Sioux and the OH-23 Raven.
M39A1/M39A2/M39A3 20mm Automatic Gun (1951-1975). The M39 series gun was developed by Springfield Armory from the German Mauser MG213 following World War II. The M39A3 was a revolver type aircraft 20mm gun developed for the U. S. Air Force. A five-chamber drum revolved about an axis parallel to the single gun bore. The gun fired from the six-o'clock position at a rate of 1,500 rpm. Four M39 cannon could be mounted in the nose of the North American F-86 Saber Jet in place of six .50 cal. machine guns. The M39 series guns were type classified both Standard A and Standard B (over 35,500 units were built).
M60C 7.62mm Flexible Machine Gun. The M60C was an aircraft version of the NATO Standard M60 machine gun. It was electrically controlled, hydraulic power charged, air-cooled, gas-operated, link-belt fed, with a firing rate of 500-650 rpm. It was used on the M2 armament subsystem on the OH-13 Sioux and the OH-23 Raven, and the M6 and M16 on the UH- 1B "Huey". The M60C was classified Standard A (over 563 units were built).
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Twin M60C 7.62mm machine guns on M16 armament subsystem
(below the M60's and out of shot, is an XM157 7-tube rocket launcher) |
M60D 7.62mm Flexible Machine Gun. The M60D machine gun is a standard NATO M60 machine gun that has been modified for use as a door gun with helicopter armament subsystems. The M60D is a flexible, gas-operated, air-cooled machine gun having a firing rate of 550 rpm. The M60D has spade grips, an aircraft ring-type sight and an improved ammunition feed system. A canvas ejection control bag attaches to the machine gun to catch ejected links and cartridge cases, preventing them from being ejected into the path of the rotor blades or turbine engine intake. The M60D was used on the M23, XM29, M59, and the Sagami mount on UH-1 series "Huey", the M24 and M41 on the CH-47 series Chinook, the XM32 and XM33 on the ACH-47A "Guns-A-Go-Go", and the M144 on the UH-60 series Black Hawk. The M60D was classffied Standard A.
M61/M61A1 Vulcan 20mm Aircraft Gun (1946-1975). The M61 20mm Vulcan is a U.S. Air Force externally powered, six-barrel, rotary-fire Gatling gun having a rate of fire of up to 7,200 rpm. The firing rate is selectable at 4,000 rpm or 6,000 rpm. The gun fires standard electrically primed 20mm ammunition. The M61 was classified Standard B (3,289 units were built). The M61A1 is hydraulically or ram-air driven, electrically controlled, and uses a linkless ammunition feed system. The M61A1 was type classified Standard A (over 4,118 units were built). The M61A1 was modified for use as a light three-barrel helicopter gun type classified as the M197 20mm automatic gun.
M75 40mm Grenade Launcher (1958-1975). The M75 was a cam-operated, electric motor driven, air-cooled, grenade launcher that had a rate of fire of 215-230 rpm. The M75 was used with the chin-mounting M5 armament subsystem used on the UH-1 series "Huey", the M28 used on the AH-1G "Huey" Cobra, and the ACH-47A "Guns-A-Go-Go" . The M75 was classified Standard A. The M75 was replaced by the M129 grenade launcher (over 494 units were built).
M129 40mm Grenade Launcher (1963-1975). The M129 was a redesign of the M75 grenade launcher that featured a concentric cam that reduced recoil and improved mounting. The M129 had an improved rate of fire of up to 400 rpm. The M129 was used with the chin-mounting M28 series armament subsystem used on the AH-1G, MOD AH-1S, and Production AH-1S Cobras. The M129 was also used on the AH-56A Cheyenne on the XM51, and the UH-1H "Huey" on the XM94. The M129 was also used on the OH-6A Cayuse and OH-58 Kiowa light observation helicopters on the XM8. The M129 was classified Standard A (over 1,667 units were built).
M134 7.62mm Machine Gun (1962-1975). The M134 "minigun" (Air Force GAU-2B/A) is a high rate of fire machine gun that uses the Gatling principle. The firing rate is selectable at 2,000 rpm or 4,000 rpm. The M134 was used on the M21, M27 XM50, XM93, and Emerson MINITAT on the UH-1 "Huey", OH-6A Cayuse, and OH-58A Kiowa. It was also used on the M18, M28 series, and XM64 on the AH-1G, MOD AH-1S, and Production AH-1S "Huey" Cobra, and XM53 on the AH-56A Cheyenne. The M134 is also used on a wide variety of special operations aircraft. The M134 was classified Standard A (over 9,500 units were built).
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M134 on M21 armament subsystem alongside
M158 seven-tube rocket launcher |
XM140/XM140E3/XM140E5 30mm Automatic Gun (1965-1973). The XM140 was a Research and Development project for a 30mm motor driven gun for area/point targets, with a rate of fire of 405 rpm. The XM140 used a muzzle brake to reduce recoil. The XM140 was used on the XM30 on the UH-1B "Huey", the XM52 on the AH-56A Cheyenne, and the XM120 on the AH-1G "Huey" Cobra.
XM157A/XM157B Rocket Launcher (AMCOM). The XM157 was a seven-tube 2.75 inch rocket launcher. The XM119 rocket control system was used with the XM157 rocket launcher. The XM157 was an AMCOM modification of the Air Force LAU-32A/A. The XM157 saw limited production.
M158/M158A1 Rocket Launcher (AMCOM). The M158 was a seven-tube 2.75 inch rocket launcher. The M158 was an AMCOM design that was interchangeable with the XM157 on the M16 and M21 armament subsystems used on the UH-1 series "Huey" and the M156 mount of the AH-1G "Huey" Cobra. The M158 was used with the MK40 rocket motor. The MK40 was replaced by the newer MK66 rocket motor. The M158A1 launcher is not compatible with the MK66 rocket motor. The XM119 rocket control system was used with the M158 rocket launcher. The M158/M158A1 launchers were type classified Standard A.
XM159B/XM159C Rocket Launcher (AMCOM). The XM159 was a 19-tube 2.75 inch rocket launcher. The XM159 was an AMCOM modification of the Air Force LAU-3B/A. The XM159 rocket launcher was used on the ACH-47A Armed/Armored Chinook. The XM119 rocket control system was used with the XM159 rocket launcher. The XM159 saw limited production.
XM175 40mm Grenade Launcher. The XM175 was a Research and Development project for a 40mm grenade launcher for use on the M59 armament subsystem on the UH-1B/UH-1C "Huey".
M195 20mm Automatic Gun (1968-1972). The M195 was a short-barreled version of the sixbarrel M61A1 Vulcan 20mm aircraft gun for use on the M35 armament subsystem used on the AH-1G "Huey" Cobra. The M195 had a firing rate of 750-800 rpm. The M195 was type classified Standard B (over 377 units were built).
XM196 7.62mm Automatic Gun. The XM196 was a Research and Development project that consisted of an M134 7.62mm "minigun" with a housing modified by addition of an ejection sprocket adapted for use in the XM53 armament subsystem on AH-56A Cheyenne.
M197 20mm Automatic Gun. Development of the M197 began in 1968 by removing three barrels from a six-barreled M61A1 Vulcan 20mm aircraft gun. The M197 is a lightweight short-barreled three-barrel automatic gun used with the M97 series armament subsystems on the AH-1P/AH-1E/AH-1F Cobras. The M197 has a firing rate of 2000-3000 rpm. The M197 is type classified Standard A.
M200/M200A1 Rocket Launcher (AMCOM). The M200 was a 19-tube 2.75 inch rocket launcher used on the UH-1C "Huey", AH-1G "Huey" Cobra, and the AH-56A Cheyenne. The M200 was used with the MK40 rocket motor. The MK40 was replaced by the newer MK66 rocket motor. The M200 launcher is not compatible with the MK66 rocket motor. The XM119 rocket control system was used with the M200 rocket launcher. The M200 was reusable and repairable. The M200/M200A1 were both type classified Standard A.
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| M156 armament subsystem with M200 'Pabst Beer' 19-tube rocket launcher |
M213 .50 Cal. Machine Gun (1968-1974). The M213 was a.50 Cal. machine gun for use with the M59 door pintle mount on the UH-ID/UH-1M "Huey". The M213 was a modified AN-M2 .50 Cal. machine gun. The M213 had a rate of fire of 750-800 rpm. The M213 was type classified Standard B (360 units were built).
XM214 5.56mm Machine Gun (1970-1971). The XM214 was a Research and Development project for a six-barrel 5.56mm (.223 Cal.) Gatling type "mini-minigun". The XM214 was similar to the M134 "minigun". It was electrically driven and could be installed on a pintle or in a turret mount. The XM214 had a rate of fire of 2000-3000 rpm.
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