Project CHECO Southeast Asia Report. Commando Vault

Abstract

Attempts to create helicopter landing zones through the use of tactical strikes were made as early as October 1966 in the eastern II Corps Tactical Zone (CTZ) under Operation Irving, only to meet with a conspicuous lack of success. The general opinion of the FACs and air liaison officers (ALOs) after the over-all operation was that the use of a tactical air effort to con- struct LZs for the Army was `1quite a waste of tactical airpower." Even after sufficient strikes had been put in to clear the area, the resulting craters usually made the landing zone unsuitable for helicopter operations. This report follows the evolution of a different concept: that of dropping a "big" bomb from a transport type aircraft to create "instant" helicopter landing zones in Southeast Asia (SEA)--from inception, through development and testing, to eventual adoption as a standard, highly successful operational tactic which would stand as an exemplar of interservice cooperation.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 12, 1970
Accession Number
ADA489334

Entities

People

  • Melvin F. Porter

Organizations

  • Pacific Air Forces

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Counter IED
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Blast
  • Combat Operations
  • Department Of Defense
  • Employment
  • Explosions
  • Explosive Ordnance Disposal
  • Explosives
  • Impact Point
  • Liquid Explosives
  • Munitions
  • Radar
  • Southeast Asia
  • Test And Evaluation
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies