Vietnamese UH-1 Gunship in the border war
During the Southwestern Border War, the Vietnamese Air Force deployed the UH-1 Gunship version to destroy the genocidal Pol Pot clique.
After the country was reunified in 1975, the Vietnam People's Air Force captured dozens of US-made UH-1 helicopters, mostly in the utility transport version.
However, few people know that we also have a variant of the UH-1 helicopter used mainly by the US Army with much more powerful weapons, which is the UH-1 Gunship.
The weapon upgrade package helps turn the UH-1 into a professional fire support vehicle called the M21, including two 7.62 mm M134 miniguns with two 70 mm Hydra rocket launchers mounted on arms hanging on both sides of the body.
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| The UH-1 Gunship helicopter with the M21 weapon system is a very powerful means of air fire support. |
The M21 weapon configuration gives the UH-1 Gunship a very strong ground attack capability. Specifically, the M134 minigun, mechanically controlled by the pilot's joystick, proved to be much more effective than manual firing through the side door, with both accuracy and firepower density being completely superior.
In addition, Hydra rockets with a range of up to 5,000 m are very effective in suppressing fire points and destroying fortifications, and can even fight against lightly armored military vehicles.
The UH-1 Gunship also has the advantage of being highly flexible, turning quickly, not picky about landing sites, can land on weak, uneven ground like rice fields, and can land in just 10 seconds.
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| UH-1 Gunship helicopter of the 917th Air Regiment during the Southwestern Border War. |
During the Southwestern border war, in addition to the multi-purpose transport version of the UH-1, the Vietnam Air Force also deployed a small number of UH-1 Gunships, all of which belonged to the 917th Regiment.
The UH-1 Gunship helicopters equipped with M21 weapons packages coordinated very well with A-37 attack aircraft and F-5E fighters to deal fatal blows to the Pol Pot genocidal gang from the air, causing them to disintegrate in a short time.
Currently, the UH-1 helicopters still in service in Vietnam are all transport versions, but if necessary, we are fully capable of converting them into ground attack versions with weapons configurations even stronger than the M21 equipment package.
This is a direction to consider when Vietnam is lacking ground fire support helicopters after the Mi-24A squadron officially retired.