MANPADS in the Vietnam War

[Anime Ninja]

What if the North Vietnamese Army was able to get regular supplies of Soviet MANPADS during the Vietnam War? Would the US doctrine of transporting troops by helicopter still be as common? What sort of counter measures might be adopted? What other major changes might be seen if pilots were not sure where SAMs would be or that any place could then be a SAM site?

[Arachnid]

Remember this is the 60's, MANPADS are around but they're not Stingers, in fact I don't think they'll be much of a qualitative advantage over quad .50 cal's. That said it is going to hamper US freedom of movement and force increased reliance on APC's.

[ObssesedNuker]

The North Vietnamese did get the Soviet Strela-2 (NATO designation: SA-7) from 1972 on and they performed... decently well. 204 hits out of 589 fired and shot down somewhere around 50 aircraft (although only 2 of those were jet fighters and a few more were reconnassiance planes, all the rest were helicopters)... that isn't bad for a first-generation handheld SAM.

The problem with getting it into the Vietnamese hands any earlier is that the Soviets are going to want to manufacture enough to arm their own forces (first models produced in 1968 and mass production began in 1970) before they feel comfortable with exporting it.

[Matt Wiser]

And this: when SA-7s were first exported, guess who got them first-and it wasn't the North Vietnamese. They first showed up in Egypt and Syria.

[Arachnid]

Originally Posted by Matt Wiser

And this: when SA-7s were first exported, guess who got them first-and it wasn't the North Vietnamese. They first showed up in Egypt and Syria.

They showed up in Egypt 4 months before they showed in Vietnam, hardly a massive time difference.