Operation Bolo

8th TFW F-4C Phantom II on static display at Pacific Coast Air Museum

Date	January 2, 1967 (1967-01-02)
Location	North Vietnam
Result	American victory

Belligerents

United States Air Force

Vietnam People's Air Force

Commanders and leaders

Robin Olds
Daniel James, Jr.

Tran Manh

Strength

56 F-4C Phantom IIs
(28 participated)

16 MiG-21 'Fishbeds'
(8 or 9 engaged)

Casualties and losses

None

US claim:
7 MiG-21s confirmed destroyed

VPAF claim:
5 MiG-21PFL lost (c/n 1812, 1908, 1909, 2106, 2206)

US claim:
7 MiG-21s confirmed destroyed

Operation Bolo was a deception-based mission during the Vietnam War devised to lure fighter aircraft of the Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) -- Không Quân Nhân Dân Việt Nam—into battle where the odds were stacked against the defenders. The mission was planned in response to North Vietnamese tactics during the Operation Rolling Thunder aerial-bombardment campaign wherein MiGs were used to attack heavily loaded fighter-bombers while circumventing their fighter escorts. The mission featured fighter planes following the typical flight paths of bombers in order to lure enemy aircraft into attacking.

Bolo pitted the F-4 Phantom II multirole fighter against its rival, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 interceptor, and was considered to be one of the most successful combat ruses of all time, eventually prompting VPAF pilots and strategists, as well as Soviet tacticians, to re-evaluate the tactics and deployment of the MiG-21.

The F-4 Phantom II had been in operational service with the United States Air Force since 1964. The latest fighter in American service, the F-4 had powerful engines, excellent handling, and an air-to-air configuration of eight air-to-air missiles. However, the Phantom suffered from one critical armament weakness – the lack of an internal cannon, as its original conception as a fleet defense interceptor dictated that air combat would occur at beyond visual range with radar-guided missiles. It was also a large, heavy fighter, with high wing loadings that degraded its performance in high-G turns, and with engines that tended to produce large amounts of smoke, making it highly visible in combat.

The F-4’s missile armament consisted of the AIM-7 Sparrow and the AIM-9 Sidewinder. Although the short-range AIM-9 was thought to be an effective weapon, the use of the beyond visual range AIM-7 was constrained by Rules of Engagement which in most cases required visual confirmation of a target before firing – essentially defeating any advantage that the missile would have conferred to the American pilots. Both missiles had exhibited reliability problems in 1966 combat, exacerbated by maintenance problems caused by the tropical conditions of Southeast Asia, with the majority failing to ignite, fuse, or guide to the target.

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Wikipedia