A Route Package were the names given by the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

and

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

to describe areas of air operations over

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

. Generally referred to as "Route Pack" or even just "Pac" or "RP", each of the seven numbered areas represented a specific area of the country. Route Pack 1 was in the southernmost extremes of the country, on the border with

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

. Route Pack 6, or 6B specifically, referred to the area around

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

and was considered to be the best defended airspace in the world at that time, and home to the dreaded

Thud Ridge ''Thud Ridge'' was the nickname given by United States Air Force F-105 Thunderchief pilots (the aircraft being nicknamed "Thud") during the Vietnam War to the Tam Dao range a 24 km, 5000 ft high ridge that ran parallel to the Red River ...

History

Early during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, the Air Force and the Navy found it difficult to conduct joint operations, and instead competed for resources and targets. As a result, an Air Force-Navy coordinating team met in December 1965 and divided North Vietnam into six sectors. The zones were given the name "Route Packages" and were designated as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. In April 1966, Admiral U. S. Grant Sharp, Jr., commander in chief of

United States Pacific Command United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) is a unified combatant command of the United States Armed Forces responsible for the Indo-Pacific region. Formerly known as United States Pacific Command (USPACOM) since its inception in 1947, t ...

, added a seventh area by dividing RP 6 into two sections, 6A and 6B. The Navy's Carrier Task Force 77 handled operations in RPs 2, 3, 4, and 6B, as these bordered on the

Gulf of Tonkin The Gulf of Tonkin is a gulf at the northwestern portion of the South China Sea, located off the coasts of Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and South China. It has a total surface area of . It is defined in the west and northwest by the northern ...

. The Air Force was given RP 1, RP 5, and 6A. RP6 was considered the most dangerous airspace in the world. It covered both

and

Haiphong Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta. Haiphong wa ...

, and therefore covered the vast majority of strategic targets in the country. When the air war started, the entire North Vietnamese air defence system contained twenty-two early warning radars, four fire-control radars, and 700 anti-aircraft guns. By 1967, North Vietnam was firing 25,000 tons of anti-aircraft ammunition a month. When President Johnson halted Rolling Thunder on 1 November 1968, this had grown to 400 radar sites, 8,050 anti-aircraft guns, 150 fighters (including reserves based in China), and 40 SA-2 ''Guideline'' missile sites. The bombing halt allowed the defenders to rationalize and improve their system, which eventually included 200 SA-2 sites around the country and along the Ho Chi Minh trail.

References

Sources

* * {{citation , last=White , first=Douglas M , title=Rolling Thunder to Linebacker: U.S. Fixed wing survivability over North Vietnam , url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA612696.pdf , year=2014 , oclc=913595068 , ref=none United States Air Force in the Vietnam War