As I became more comfortable with flying the Skyraider, my next challenge was to master the aircraft’s fairly complex weapons delivery system that included 15 external stations for hanging weapons and/or fuel tanks… so weapons employment did get complicated at times. I began my combat tour at NKP with just over 400 hours total flying time, about 60 of these getting checked out in the A-1 at Hurlburt Field.

“My Fighter Career” is a limited series of articles by Byron Hukee who flew everything from the F-100 to the F-16. 

• 1: “I Wasn’t Born to Fly”
• 2: The F-100 Super Sabre Is My New Ride
• 3: Flying the A1-H Skyraider
• 4: Getting Ready For My Skyraider Deployment

We did drop ordnance during our few ground attack missions there, but most of the time we were dropping  training ordnance such as the 25 lb. BDU-33 and MK-106 practice bombs plus rockets from the LAU-68 7-tube dispenser along with 20mm from the two guns that were loaded with practice rounds. Now, we were flying with either ordnance or fuel tanks on every one of the 15 external stations (12 outer stations, 2 inboard stations, and the centerline station.)

It was normal to have every station loaded so our lineup card that was strapped to our knee board had a diagram of every station and the store loaded on it.

Skyraider Weapons Employment: Tough But Doable

The weapons delivery problem became only slightly easier because we always carried a 300 gallon fuel tank on the Centerline Station and a 150 gallon fuel tank on the Right Inboard Station. In addition to adding 3,000 pounds of fuel, the asymmetric loading helped offset the tremendous amount of torque that was generated at high power settlings by adding drag on the right side resulting in the need for less left rudder on takeoff and other flight regimes. 

Though referred to as drop tanks, unless there was an emergency requiring jettison of the external tanks, they were routinely returned with the aircraft to be refilled for the next sortie.

The following section will cover the technical details of the types of ordnance I employed during my one-year combat tour. I will cover which ordnance was used for what kind of targets in subsequent episodes.

The Ordnance I Deployed On My Tour:

During my one-year combat four flying the A-1 Skyraider, I employed 32 different kinds of ordnance.

Guns
20mm – HEI (high explosive, incendiary) and APT (armor piercing, tracer)
Four M-3 Cannons, 180 rounds each, fired in pairs, Inboards or outboards
Rate of fire (per gun) 700 rounds per minute ( nominally 10 per second x 2)
SUU-11 Minigun pod – 1,500 rounds of 7.62mm mix of AP and APT
Rate of fire 6,000 rounds per minute, 100 rounds per second

Rockets
2.75” FFAR (folding fin aerial rocket) carried in either the 7-tube LAU-68 pod or the 19-tube LAU-3 pod

Rx Warheads
M151 HE 8.7 lbs (normally carried in two LAU-3, 19-tube dispensers
M229 HE 16.1 lbs (carried in two LAU-68, 7-tube dispensers)
M156 WP (white phosphorus) (normally carried in two LAU-68, 7-tube dispensers)
WDU-4/A Flechette warheads (each containing 2,200 20 grain flechettes (finned nails)
5” Zuni Rockets – carried in 2 LAU-10 dispensers, 4 rockets per dispenser
HE warheads with proximity fuses

CBU
CBU = Dispenser + bomblet
(Both CBU-22 and CBU-25 used the 6-tube, aft dispensing SUU-14 dispenser that was jettisoned after dispensing the bomblets
CBU-22 contained 72 (12 per tube) BLU-17 smoke bomblets/grenades used as incendiary weapons or to create a smoke screen
CBU-25 contained 132 (22 per tube) “baseball sized” BLU-24/B fragmentation bomblets

Frag Cluster
AN-M1A4 A 100 lb. Frag cluster bomb consisted of six 20 lb frag bombs banded together in a triangular arrangement. Once released, the retaining bands would loosen and the bombs would fall independently to the ground.

Bombs
Mk-81 250 lb. Low-Drag, General Purpose (LDGP) bomb
Mk-82 500 lb. Low-Drag, General Purpose (LDGP) bomb
M-117 750 lb. General Purpose bomb
AN-M47 A 100 lb white phosphorus filled bomb

Fire Bombs ( trade name Napalm)
BLU-32/B 500 lb. (finned or unfinned)

The Switchology For Dropping Ordnance

The 20 mm cannons and mini guns were set up to fire as soon as we crossed the “fence,” in this case, the Mekong River north of NKP which was the border between Thailand and Laos. All that was necessary to fire the guns was to select Inboard or Outboard for guns, place the ‘Master Arm’ switch to Arm and squeeze the trigger for the 20s or press the ‘Inner Stations’ release button (top button on the stick) for the minigun.

The rocket pods and CBU dispensers had a Single/Ripple switch that we checked during preflight to be in the single position. Our armament panel settings could still produce a ripple release with the appropriate pulse and interval settings.

Weapons passes on a “typical” mission:
First pass – LAU-3 HE (high explosive) rockets, ripple fire both pods, total of 38 rockets, from stations 6-7
Second pass – CBU-25 pairs from stations 1-12
Third pass – AN-M1A4 frag clusters, pairs from stations 2-11
Fourth pass – AN-M1A4 frag clusters, pairs from stations 3-10
Fifth pass – LAU-68 WP (white phosphorus) rockets, ripple fire both pods, total 14 rockets, from stations 5-8
Sixth pass – M-47A4, white phosphorus bombs, pairs from stations 4-9

Switchology for each pass listed above was:
1.) Master Arm Switch – Arm prior to first roll in.
2.) First pass, LAU-3 Rockets – Gun sight Reticle to appropriate setting;
3.) ‘Outer Stations’ selector switch, station 6-7;
4.) ‘Rockets/Bombs’ switch to Rockets;
5.) ‘Outer Stations Hold’ switch to Hold;
6.) ‘Intervalometer Selector Switch’ to Interval (single/ripple switch at rear of LAU-3 set to single);
7.) ‘Release per Second’ selector to 5.

After roll in, fire a few 20mm rounds (trigger) to keep the enemies’ heads down, fire a burst from the minigun (‘Inner Stations’ button on stick) to get a feel for where the rockets will go, press and hold the ‘Outer Station Release’ button on stick until the rockets stop firing. On pull off, reach down and move the ‘Rockets/Bombs’ switch to Bombs, and pickle once more to discard the now empty LAU-3 dispensers.

Second pass, CBU-25 Cluster Bombs
Gun sight Reticle to appropriate setting;
‘Outer Stations’ selector switch, station 1-12;
‘Rockets/Bombs’ switch to Rockets; ‘
Outer Stations Hold’ switch to Hold;
‘Intervalometer Selector Switch’ to Interval (single/ripple switch at rear of SUU-14 dispenser set to single);
‘Release per Second’ selector to 5.
After roll in, fire a few 20mm rounds (trigger) to keep the enemies’ heads down, press and hold the ‘Outer Station Release’ button on stick until the CBUs stop coming out. On pull off, reach down and move the ‘Rockets/Bombs’ switch to Bombs, and pickle once more to discard the now empty SUU-14 dispensers.

Third pass, AN-M1A4 Frag Clusters – Gun sight Reticle to appropriate setting; ‘Outer Stations’ selector switch, station 2-11; ‘Rockets/Bombs’ switch to Bombs; ‘Outer Stations Hold’ switch to Hold; and the ‘Intervalometer Selector Switch’ to Single Pulse .
After roll in, fire a few 20mm rounds (trigger) to keep the enemies’ heads down, press and release the ‘Outer Station Release’ button on stick to release frag clusters.

Fourth pass, AN-M1A4 Frag Clusters – Gun sight Reticle to appropriate setting;
‘Outer Stations’ selector switch, station 3-10;
‘Rockets/Bombs’ switch to Bombs;
‘Outer Stations Hold’ switch to Hold;
‘Intervalometer Selector Switch’ to Single Pulse .
After roll in, fire a few 20mm rounds (trigger) to keep the enemies’ heads down, press and release the ‘Outer Station Release’ button on stick to release frag clusters.

Fifth pass, LAU-68 Rockets – Gun sight Reticle to appropriate setting; ‘Outer Stations’ selector switch, station 5-8; ‘Rockets/Bombs’ switch to Rockets;
‘Outer Stations Hold’ switch to Hold;
‘Intervalometer Selector Switch’ to Interval (single/ripple switch at rear of LAU-3 set to single); ‘Release per Second’ selector to 5.
After roll in, fire a burst from the minigun (‘Inner Stations’ button on stick) to get a feel for where the rockets will go, then press and hold the ‘Outer Station Release’ button on stick until the rockets stop firing. (NOTE: The LAU-68 pods were refillable so they were not bombed off on the pull off like the LAU-3 pods were)

Sixth (and last) pass, M-47A4 Smoke Bombs – Gun sight Reticle to appropriate setting; ‘Outer Stations’ selector switch, station 4-9; ‘Rockets/Bombs’ switch to Bombs; ‘Outer Stations Hold’ switch to Hold; and the ‘Intervalometer Selector Switch’ to Single Pulse .
After roll in, fire a few 20mm rounds (trigger) to keep the enemies’ heads down, press and release the ‘Outer Station Release’ button on stick to release smoke bombs.
It did get busy at times!

Sounds Easy Right? Errors Happened

Switchology errors were not uncommon, but could be disastrous. For example, leaving the Rockets/Bombs switch in the Bomb position for Pass One above would result in two full LAU-3 pods and 38 rockets falling to the ground unarmed and probably no where near the target.

The worst part was the fact that the enemy would have a clear shot at you since you are essentially making a dry pass over the target… definitely not good or conducive to longevity. The stakes were high so I forced my self to check and recheck switch positions before each pass.