Wild Weasel

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Wild Weasel is a code name given by the United States Air Force (USAF) to any aircraft equipped with anti-radiation missiles and used to suppress enemy air defenses by destroying their radar and surface-to-air missile (SAM) installations. A Wild Weasel pilot baits an enemy into targeting their aircraft with their radars, then traces the radar emissions back to their source, allowing the Weasel or its teammates to precisely target it for destruction. The USAF developed the Wild Weasel concept in 1965 during the Vietnam War after Soviet SAMs began downing American strike aircraft participating in Operation Rolling Thunder over North Vietnam. The program was headed by General Kenneth Dempster. "The first Wild Weasel success came soon after the first Wild Weasel mission 20 December 1965 when Captains Al Lamb and Jack Donovan took out a site during a Rolling Thunder strike on the railyard at Yên Bái, some 75 mi (120 km) northwest of Hanoi", wrote historian Walter J. Boyne. Wild Weasel tactics...

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