North American F-100F Wild Weasel04:33

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Published on March 16, 2017

Wild Weasel is a nickname for aircraft of the United States Air Force tasked with the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) mission. Initially known by the operational code “IRON HAND” when first authorized on August 12, 1965, the term “Wild Weasel” derives from Project Wild Weasel, the USAF development program for a dedicated SAM-detection and suppression aircraft. Originally named “Project Ferret”, denoting a predatory animal that goes into its prey’s den to kill it (hence: “to ferret out”), the name was changed to differentiate it from the code-name “Ferret” that had been used during World War II for radar counter-measures bombers.

The Wild Weasel concept was originally proposed in 1965 as a method of countering the increasing North Vietnamese SAM threat, using volunteer crews flying the two-seat F model of the F-100 Super Sabre. While an effective airframe, the F-100F Wild Weasel did not have the performance characteristics to survive in a high threat environment.

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