At work, I was privileged enough to be exposed to a little piece of history that I was unaware of; The use of drones in the Vietnam War.

Turns out, that we had a program utilizing drones to gather ELINT on SA-2 SAM systems  utilizing a DC-130 with drones in concert with a modified B-47 designated RB-47.

So the DC-130's apparently launched the drones to try and get SA-2 sites to paint them with their radar and engage, so that the RB-47 could gather whatever ELINT data possible on the new anti-air system.

Really neat stuff. If you're interested there's a book called, The History of Strategic Drone Operations that mentions it a little bit.

Most of the RB-47 sorties were flown out of Bien Hoa airbase in south Vietnam.

Also check this link out. Really cool shit.

http://www.coldwar.org/text_files/rb47_rc135.pdf

Neat, thanks for sharing.

Very cool link. I've long found these stories fascinating. The B-47 was one cool aircraft.

By Any Means Necessary: America's Secret Air War in the Cold War by William Burrows is a fantastic read on the subject.

Great post. I ran across that document a few months ago while researching B-47s - never had any idea we had something like ELINT drones back then.

Bien Hoa airbase was referred to as OL-20 for the RB47 crews. I ran across a reference for an OL-7  as well but i can't figure out where that location is.

Thanks for the link.

Thanks, that was a fun read.

That was a great read

Bad ass

That was before my time, but not by much. I was in a recon squadron that flew U2s and C130s with drones out of Davis Monthan, TDY to Utapao airbase in Thailand in the early 70s during the later stages of Vietnam. Before that I was in an F4 squadron in Vietnam.

The B47 was already in storage at the boneyard. We flew 2 different types of drones from the 130. After they completed their mission, CH47s would capture the drones from a deployed parachute.

B52s were also flown out of Utapao. We had our own little private area away from the buffs. The U2s and drones were always hangered. The 130s were parked on the ramp. We pretty much stayed in our own area.

I never knew what our mission was on a day to day basis..."need to know" was a big deal and we were all glad to leave it that way. The men in that squadron were the most professional airmen I was ever around and I was happy to be part of it.

I'm currently in a recon/attack squadron right now, and this is still true.

You wouldn't happen to know where OL 7 was would you?

Don't know.

I got Google hits for OL-7 as RAF UPPER HEYFORD ENGLAND. The context references U-2 flights.

This list is missing OL-7, but has others: http://www.ais.org/~schnars/aero/ol-det.htm
better list: http://www.u2sr71patches.co.uk/ols.htm
This list references Stuttgart, Germany but there were no cross-reference hits, so I suspect Upper Heyford is accurate. http://larrytart.com/FTV/locations.html
Cross-reference hit: 17 Aug 62, Upper Heyford, (OL 7), U.K., 90 days http://www.u2sr71patches.co.uk/tb.htm

Tag for later.

Thanks. Good find man.

That was pretty cool, thanks for posting.