Thanks for the Beautiful plane.
But what good is it in WOV, the only effective weapon was the Aim26A Nuke the pod rockets cannot hit a mig17 neither can the AIM4A B or C Falcons no wonder the spent Nam sitting on the deck at Ton Son Nhut and Da Nang. Where they there to deter Chinese bombers or what??
The 106 with the sharpshooter pack is a good plane but never actually went to Nam. looks like wikipedia explains my question
Initially, F-102 detachments began to be sent to bases in SoutheastAsia in 1962, when radar contacts that were detected by ground radarswere thought to possibly be North Vietnamese Il-28 "Beagle"bombers, which was considered a very credible threat during that timeperiod. F-102s were sent to Thailand and other nearby countries tointercept these aircraft if they threatened South Vietnam at any time.
Jungle camouflage F-102As of the 509th FIS over Vietnam, November 1966.Later on, B-52strikes, codenamed ARC LIGHT, were escorted by F-102s based in thetheater. It was during one of these missions that an F-102 was shotdown by a North Vietnamese MiG-21 using an AA-2 Atoll heat-seeking missile.The MiGs approached undetected, and one of the F-102s was hit by an airto air missile, which did not explode immediately, but remained in theaft end of the aircraft causing stability problems. As the pilotreported his mechanical problem to his wingman, the wingman observedthe damaged Delta Dagger explode in mid-air, killing the pilot.[13]The other F-102 pilot managed to shoot off some AIM-4s at the fleeingMiG-21s, but no hits were recorded. This was the only air-to-air lossfor the F-102 during the Vietnam War.
The F-102 was tried with limited success for several years in theair-to-ground role, although neither the aircraft nor training weredesigned for the role.[14]The interceptor was equipped with 24 2.75 in (70 mm) FFARs in thefuselage bay doors. These could be used to good effect against varioustypes of North Vietnamese targets in daylight. At night it was lessdangerous to use heat-seeking Falcon missiles in conjunction with theF-102's nose-mounted IRST (Infrared Search & Track) on night timeharassment raids along the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Operations with both the F-102A and TF-102A two-seater (which wasused in a Forward Air Control role because its two seats and2.75 in/70 mm rockets offered good versatility for the mission) inVietnam until 1968 when all F-102 aircraft were sent back to the UnitedStates.