NDQSAAir Defense Artillery service during the Vietnam War
NDQSAAir Defense Artillery Units That Served In Vietnam 1965-1972
1st Battalion 44th Artillery (AW)(SP) Twin 40mm “Duster” with attached G-Battery 65th Artillery Quad 50 Caliber (MG) and G-Battery 29th Artillery (Searchlights)
5th Battalion 2nd Artillery (AW)(SP) Twin 40mm “Duster” with attached D-Battery 71st Artillery Quad 50 Caliber (MG), I-Battery 29th Artillery (Searchlights), and the Vulcan 20mm Combat Team
4th Battalion 60th Artillery (AW)(SP) Twin 40mm “Duster” with attached E-Battery 41st Artillery Quad 50 Caliber (MG) and B-Battery 29th Artillery (Searchlights)
G-Battery 55th Artillery Quad 50 Caliber (MG)
H-Battery 29th Artillery (Searchlights)
6th Battalion 56th Artillery (Hawk)
6th Battalion 71st Artillery (Hawk)
| Crew | 6 [usually 4 in actual combat conditions] |
| Armament | Twin 40mm cannon, one 7.62 mm machine-gun |
| Ammunition | Main anti-aircraft: 480 rounds |
| Types: Armor-Piercing Tracer and High Explosive Tracer | |
| Armor | All-welded steel – thickness: 9mm-25mm (0.35-0.99in) |
| Dimensions | Length (including guns): 20ft 10in (6.356m) |
| Length (hull): 19ft 1in (5.819m) | |
| Width: 10ft 7in (3.225m) | |
| Height: 9ft 4in (2.847m) | |
| Weight | Combat: 49,500lbs (22.452kg) |
| Ground pressure | 9.24lb/in2 (0.65kg/cm2) |
| Engine | Continental (or Lycoming) six-cylinder air-cooled gasoline engine developing 500bhp at 2,800rpm |
| Fuel Capacity | 140 US gallons (530 liters) |
| Performance | Road speed: 45 mph (72km/h) |
| Range: 100 miles (161km) | |
| Vertical obstacle: 2ft 4in (0.711m) | |
| Trench: 6ft 4in (1.828m) | |
| Gradient: 60 % |
Known as the ‘Whispering Death’
Each M-55 Quad 50 consisted of four Browning M2 .50-caliber machine guns mounted in a power turret on a deuce and a half (2 1/2 ton truck) or a 5 ton truck.
Effective rate of fire 1,000 to 1,500 rounds per minute.
The M-55 Quad mount could be sling loaded with the CH-47 helicopter.
Searchlights were used mostly in perimeter defense. The AN/TVS-3 (30-inch) was a carbon arc lamp mounted on a trailer and required a separate generator. It could put out 400 million candlepower. In Vietnam the AN/MSS-3 (23-inch) with its 120 million candlepower was most practical because they were small enough to fit on a standard M-151 jeep and use the jeep’s 100amp generator for power. They were capable of beams in the visible or infrared spectrum. With special binoculars or telescopes, troops could see enemies without giving away their positions. At night the searchlights swept the perimeter in the infrared mode, so as to detect the enemy without disclosing their positions. Having found the enemy, gunners switched to visible light mode for target illumination and engagement.
“Hawk means ‘Homing All-the-Way Killer’
The missile has a two-stage solid fuel motor, giving both an initial high acceleration rate and sustained thrust. The launcher was a three-missile cluster on a trailer or three-missile cluster on a mobile launcher. The Hawk is a radar homer which picks up signals from a radar which are reflected by the target, and steers itself to the interception.
An Air Defense Vulcan test unit was deployed to Vietnam in late 1968. The unit, called the “Vulcan combat test team”, consisted of a platoon of four XM-163 vehicles each mounting the Vulcan M16A1 six barreled 20 mm rotary gatling gun on a converted M113A1 armored personnel carrier chassis, plus one spare. The gun fires at 3,000 rounds per minute in short bursts of 10, 30, 60, or 100 rounds, or it can fire in continuous fire mode at a rate of 1,000 rounds per minute. A linkless feed system is used. They were used mainly in the convoy escort role during their Vietnam test period.
