Vietnam War technology

The Vietnam War, as with any conflict waged between a large and a small country, there are several topics that are not entirely certain. One of these topics is the assertion that the Vietnamese were fighting with primitive weapons against the most advanced technology. Certainly several intelligence reports showed that the

Vietcong derived most of its material from the southern army and mines and other unexploded ordnance fired by the United States. There is evidence that the Vietcong set ambushes with EVN craft. For its part the United States used the lazy dog bombs loaded with thousands of blades to generate a slower death to victims in their path.

While it is true that the U.S used in Vietnam the most sophisticated electronics available to them (motion detectors, laser-guided smart bombs, helicopter gunships) it is no less true that the North Vietnamese, and somewhat lesser members Vietcong, possessed the best the Soviet arsenal had.

Thus the conquest of the hills of Laos was due largely to the intervention of tanks sent by the USSR. U.S veterans often complained of having to fight with weapons that did not work for the poor start of the M-16 versus AK-47 (for its simplicity and reliability).

During air raids over North Vietnam in the sixties and seventies Hanoi launched its MiG-17. Westerners initially thought that the MIG 17 was a mere improvement of previous apparatus used in the Korean War.

Vietnamese pilots demonstrated that they had a completely different device which was much more manageable and more accurate. Even more sophisticated was the world famous Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 reactor, a machine designed in 18 months. It made numerous demolitions of all types of U.S aircraft (including F-4 Phantom launched against him). Even better was the MiG-23 that entered service when the conflict ended.

Several publications have highlighted the aerial feats performed by Lt. Randall Cunningham at the wheel of his Phantom, but the fact is that the Vietnamese pilots shot down many fighters and bombers with the two machines mentioned above, despite having less maintenance and less training than their enemies.

A Vietnamese man who did not wish to be named described it as follows: Even before Christmas we’d already shown how effective our anti-aircraft systems were. On October 17th U.S aircraft shot down 4,000. The victim was none other than an F-111 supersonic fighter-bomber wing arrow and was then the latest in aviation technology.

The reliability and strength of Vietnamese weapons was superior to that of the Americans. So much so that many of these weapons, such as the reliable AK-47, have been subsequently some of the best-selling mills worldwide, thanks to its high value, even above their U.S counterparts.

The MiG-21 aircraft was so outstanding that nations like the Czech Republic in the 90s decided to cancel more modern and modernized apparatus. Finally, the MiG-23 sparked some concern in the Air Force United States and led them to begin developing a new generation of weapon.