Juvat wrote:

snip


3. ECM Pod carriage: Can anyone comment on the carriage of ECM pods on
the wing stations (?) of RF-101C's. I'm refering to page 39 of the same
reference, depicting an aircraft at Phu Cat AB

No looking at the book, guessing its either an ALQ-51 or ALQ-71. I've
got some info, not much. Don't have it highlighted in the reports I
have, will need to look.

Don't have the book, so can't comment on the pod unless you give a verbal
description. Was the ALQ-51 pod-mounted? Jenkins' book on the F-105
mentions that they were developing it as an internal fit for that a/c along
with the APS-107B under Wild Weasel II, and when they decided not to use
either on the 105, "compatibility testing of the ALQ-51 on the F-105F was
added [APGC] Project 0420Y (APR-25, APR-26, and ALQ-51 compatibility testing
on the RF-101C)."

Slightly further on he writes "The ALQ-51 was rejected as a potential F-105
ECM system due primarily to lack of space in the airframe for its
components, but test in the RF-101C were successful. The Navy provided
enough ALQ-51s to equip PACAF's Voodoos." It was certainly an internal fit
on navy a/c, although that doesn't mean they couldn't have put it in a pod
if they'd needed to, but the strong implication of the above is that it
wasn't. Dorr says in his Osprey book that ALQ-51 pods were used on the
RF-101, but when in doubt I put more trust in Jenkins than Dorr. As for
other pods, I have a vague memory of reading somewhere that ALQ-72s were
sometimes carried by the RF-101s, to make things tougher for the MiG-21's
Spin Scan.


Specifically:
- what time period or operations were the pods carried?

Gotta look it up.

The Project CHECO report "Tactical Electronic Warfare Operations in SEA,
1962-1968," dated 10 February 1969, says that pre-production QRC-160 pods
were first deployed from Kadena to Tan Son Nhut for use by RF-101s in late
March 1965. Dorr agrees on 1965. From the report:

"Support was a problem; however, a more serious deficiency surfaced. The
pods were not constructed to endure in-flight vibrations and internal parts
came loose. they also seemed to cause the RF-101 wingtips to tuck and some
thought this could become a safety of flight issue. The pods were shipped
back to the U.S., and this experience cast a shadow of suspicion over
them." No data given for their return to the U.s. but it sounds like it was
within a couple of months. The pilots that Dorr talked to said much the
same thing about the pods, albeit more generally ("Pure Junk" was the
quote).

25 QRC-160-1s (which eventually became the ALQ-71) were then sent back to
SEA, presumably modified/redesigned to eliminate the problems mentioned
above, with the first flights on 26 September 1966 on F-105s. These proved
successful, so presumably the RF-101s would have received them shortly
afterwards and certainly no later than 1967, although if they already had
ALQ-51s the need would not be as critical for them as for the wholly
unprotected (up until then) F-105s and then F-4s.


- can anyone comment on the specific pod carried in this photo, or in
general what pods were carried by the Voodoo.

You'll have to describe it, or post the photo on
alt.binary.pictures.aviation if you can. Is there a RAT (ram air turbine) on
the nose or is it clean, antenna size, number and location, seam locations,
general body shape, color, etc. If its got black radomes front and rear as
well as a small black fairing on the underside, it's a QRC-335 (ALQ-101). I
don't know that RF-101s ever used them, but that's about the only
Vietnam-era pod that you can recognize by only a few fieldmarks.

Guy