Under Fire over VietnamNorth Vietnam fired SAMs at BLACK SHIELD A-12s three times but caused damage only once. The first attempted shootdown occurred on the 16th mission on 28 October 1967.  Flown by Dennis Sullivan, the aircraft was on its second pass, approaching Hanoi from the west, when an SA-2 was launched at it. Photographs taken during the mission show missile smoke above the SAM site and the missile and its contrail, heading down and away from the aircraft. The A-12’s ECMs worked well, and the SAM, which was fired too late, was never a threat. 

The second incident, two days later, on the 18th mission, was the closest an OXCART aircraft ever came to being shot down. Sullivan again was the pilot. On the first pass between Hanoi and Haiphong, radar tracking detected two SAM sites preparing to launch, but neither did. On the second pass toward Hanoi and Haiphong from the west, at least six missiles were fired from sites around the capital. The A-12 was flying at Mach 3.1 at 84,000 feet. Looking out the rear-view periscope, Sullivan reported seeing six vapor trails go up to about 90,000 feet behind the aircraft, arc over, and begin converging on it. He saw four missiles—one as close as 100 to 200 yards away—and three detonations behind the A-12. Six missile contrails appeared on mission photography.

A post-flight inspection at Kadena found that a piece of metal, probably debris from an exploded missile, had penetrated the lower right wing and lodged near the fuel tank. A BLACK SHIELD officer at Kadena noted that the A-12 pilots were “showing considerable anxiety about overflying this area before we get some answers.” Helms ordered that missions be temporarily suspended. None was flown until 8 December. It and the following one two days later photographed the Cambodia-Laos-South Vietnam triborder area and were not sent over the North. 

Sorties over North Vietnam resumed on 15 December and continued until 8 March 1968—the next-to-last BLACK SHIELD flight.  The first two flights took different paths than the Hanoi-Haiphong route followed by the A-12s that were shot at in late October. Another SAM was fired on mission 23 on 4 January 1968; that aircraft took the same route as those that had been attacked. The missile, fired on the second pass like the others, was captured on photography from launch to detonation, well over a mile from the aircraft. Two of the next three flights over North Vietnam came in from the south rather than the east, and all three stayed farther away from Hanoi and Haiphong than those that had been shot at. The general times when these flights were made did not change despite the SAM attacks; all crossed into North Vietnamese territory in the late morning.


 DS&T, “BLACK SHIELD Reconnaissance Missions, 16 August-31 December 1967,” 31 January 1968, 18-22; D/OSA memorandum to DDS&T, “Analysis of Surface to Air Missile Engagements for OXCART Missions BX6732 and BX6734,” 27 November 1967.