Wild Weasel Archives - The Aviationist

Here’s how an F-16 Wild Weasel pilot earned the Silver Star decoration during Operation Allied Force

April 20, 2016 Dario Leone

The risky business of being a “Wild Weasel” pilot. Born in response to LWF (Light Weight Fighter) program, to meet the U.S. Air Force need for a small and agile fighter, the F-16 Viper has […]

First In, Last Out: the story of the SEAD missions flown by the F-105 in Vietnam

November 30, 2015 Dario Leone

Here’s why Wild Weasel missions were among the most dangerous sorties flown in Southeast Asia. During the Vietnam War the main threat to the strike packages was the V-750 (S-75) Dvina, the first effective Soviet surface-to-air missile […]

You Gotta Be Shitting Me! The Story of the first U.S. SAM-hunters in Vietnam

March 13, 2014 Dario Leone

In addition to being the first of the so called “Century Series” fighters and the first U.S. Air Force plane able to reach supersonic speed in level flight, the North American F-100 Super Sabre was […]

Operation Unified Protector (was Odyssey Dawn) explained (Day 81 – 104)

July 1, 2011 David Cenciotti

Previous debriefings: Archive With the air campaign in Libya in progress for more than 100 days, I think it’s better to give the blog’s reader an extremely quick recap of the main political and military […]

Operation Unified Protector (was Odyssey Dawn) explained (Day 68 – 80)

June 7, 2011 David Cenciotti

Previous debriefings: Archive As reported in the previous Debriefs, although not being as intense as one might expect, NATO air campaign may be slowly paying off. Thanks also to the coalition’s air strikes (and to […]