Concept to Combat: Laser-Guided Bombs in the Vietnam War

Don’t miss our newsletter, where we drop weekly knowledge bombs to help you make sense of defense!
Speaking of knowledge bombs, Mike hosts Ed Cobleigh to talk about Paveway: the laser- guided bomb.
Ed flew 375 combat missions during the Vietnam War in the F-4 Phantom and was one of the first people to drop the Paveway laser-guided bomb in combat way back in 1968!
He earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses and went on to attend Fighter Weapons School, where he remained in order to stand up the guided weapons division and teach Paveway LGB employment.
Ed’s had a wild life beyond the Air Force, and is now an author with 5 books (and counting).
This episode covers not just the tech and tactics but also a first-person account of dropping LGBs in combat 56 years ago!
----
Links
• newsletter⁠! www.themerge.co
• Support us on ⁠Patreon⁠! / the_merge
• Mike Benitez (LinkedIn) / mike-benitez
• Ed’s website www.edcobleigh...
• Ed’s books on Amazon www.amazon.com...
----
Follow us on...
• ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠ / themerge
• Instagram⁠ / merge_newsletter
• ⁠X⁠ x.com/MergeNew...
• ⁠Facebook⁠ / themergenews
• ⁠Website⁠ www.themerge.co
----
Show Notes
00:00
00:34 intro
01:58 How Ed got to Vietnam
02:31 background of guided bombs
03:35 Paveway history
07:19 Project White Lightning
09:03 the first laser designator
10:19 Dropping the LGBs
12:15 results from the first tests
14:00 training for the first LGB drop
15:04 Zot nickname
17:49 Ed's 2nd tour
20:17 Navy gets Paveway
22:21 teaching LGBs at Nellis
23:45 Red Flag
25:16 Targeting Pods
26:57 Linebacker 1972
27:56 Dragons Jaw Bridge
29:51 Paveway’s legacy
30:46 F-117 and Paveway
32:37 Paveway III
34:29 Paveway lawsuit
35:26 Ed's books
37:45 outro
For those interested in #military #nationaldefense #warfare #nationalsecurity #defense #nationaldefense #tech #technology #defensetech #army #navy #airforce #innovation #F4 #vietnam #aviation #airplanes #aerospace

[@RKH8]

Huge greetings to Ed Cobligh. We served together on the Jaguar OCU ar RAF Lossiemouth.

[@troyledbetter6597]

I thought that looked like a Jag at the beginning!

[@homebase5934]

This bloke is so interesting to listen too and is a great communicator. Just wish this episode was at least 2 hours longer.

[@ti1ion]

The Vietnam book is great. When I saw the title and thumbnail for this episode, with the F-4, I immediately thought of Ed's book and the story he told of going after the gun emplacements with the LGBs and the reaction of the FAC. And then I clicked on the episode and saw that Ed is the featured guest! Awesome!

[@TheMergeMedia]

I love it when a plan comes together!

[@HandyMan657]

HA! They gave us a ground briefing which was about half n hour. That's classic. Thanks for the upload. Take care

[@anselmdanker9519]

Thank you a very interesting piece of history. 😊

[@TheMergeMedia]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@tonyragi]

From 75-79 I worked in the Eglin System Program Office for guided weapons. The Paveway project engineer sat at the desk next to me as i worked on precision guided glide bombs. Later in my career I was with Rockwell in Atlanta and worked with a retired Colonel named Windy Hull. He was part of the original concept development team for the LGB at Eglin. He told many entertaining stories about those times. One that I remember was his discussion of flying in the back seat of an F-4 on the Eglin range trying to determine if the laser designation approach was even practical. He designated targets with an M1 rifle stock housing the laser designator. The M-1 was stabilized in the cockpit with bungee cords. They proved it worked! I found that fascinating.

[@TheMergeMedia]

Wow! Thanks for sharing

[@vernmeyerotto255]

I taught F4E Fire Control Systems at Lowry in the 70s, so by that time, "smart" weapons were part of what we taught. We'd integrated TV guided weapons video into the radar displays by then, first with the original Westinghouse DVST (Dual View Storage Tube) displays - you could tweak the display for either radar or TV, not both. Then MSDG (Multiple Sensor Display Group) - a technical disaster by Hazeltine. Finally the Texas Instruments DSCG (Digistal Scan Converter Group) display, which digitized the analog radar video, and displayed it as TV video on a digital raster scan display. It was simple to display weapons video, TISEO (Target Identification System Electro-Optical) video, or the now digitized radar video on the same instrument.

[@LeeWhitmer]

While I always enjoy your episodes about current and future issues, it was good to see some historical context.

[@TheMergeMedia]

Thanks! You'll love what we have planned for early 2025 😉

[@heloshark]

Great interview, outstanding content. Arguably, The Merge is the best place to go for great content about the services and the defense industry.

[@TheMergeMedia]

❤❤ spread the word!

[@Inkling777]

This brings back memories. In the mid-to-late 1960s I was a co-op engineering student working for a contractor at Eglin AFB. Two of my quarters were spent at A-20, whose radars provided the ground control for the runs at Eglin's bombing ranges. I was never told how the system worked, so it was interesting to discover that. Wonderful to know it was successful. The fewer the bomb runs needed, the better.

[@johnferguson1455]

Really enjoyable!

[@charleshopkins3817]

Saw you on Mooch’s channel, and I’ve been really stoked to see you’re doing more stuff on KZbin. Keep it up man!

[@TheMergeMedia]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@gregheesacker4008]

Like Pacos other videos, this is great for learning about our defense systems.

[@carlfischer4163]

Another great episode in history. Thanks PAKO. 🇺🇸👍

[@stagggerlee]

Loaded these at Ubon in 71 - 72. Laser pod was made by Philco-Ford. Loaded lots of all 3 sizes. Did not install ejector cartridges in the rack with laser pod. One aircraft rejected a take off and caught the departure barrier with 2 3000 lb and 2 AIM 7. A fire ensued, the bombs went off low order, throwing the casings 100 yards away. AIM 7s cooked off blowing the tail off. Loaded the tv guided bombs once very early during my tour

[@-Hardstyle-]

As usual. As soon as I see a new Merge episode. I'm very happy!

[@pf_n1ps]

Great stuff Mike and Ed. What surprised me is the systems are basically the same as 50 years ago.

[@rostamr4096]

Awesome interview. I am a big fan of The Merge.

[@skyepilotte11]

Great interview...thx

[@steffey14]

Excellent interview.

[@TheMergeMedia]

Thank you!

[@georgeburns7251]

Great book, WAR FOR THE 29:36 29:37 29:39 HELL OF IT. Great episode. It was amazing all of the projects that Ford Aerospace was involved in. Philco - Ford, WDL (Western Developmental Labratory), Aeroneutronic Ford, now all gone. Ford even stopped making cars, just SUVs and pickups. Today they lead the world in recalls.

[@RedTail1-1]

Did you not notice you hit the timestamp button?... You even edited the comment and somehow didn't realize there were 3 random time codes?...

[@tomgraydon666]

My Dad was the test engineer at Eglin AFB for this and many other weapons systems

[@troyledbetter6597]

Paveway 2! Paul Doumer Bridge.

[@douglassauvageau7262]

15 seconds from release to impact?! JSLAMS was a HUGH improvement.

[@douglassauvageau7262]

In the late 1960s, Elliot Engineering in Tigard, Oregon developed the spatial-measurement laser technologies used in the early versions. They 'licensed' those technologies to DoD contractors and used the proceeds to develop systems to facilitate precision construction / civil-engineering applications.

[@stagggerlee]

AIM 9 rails for F4 were built by Benrus Watch Company.

[@troyledbetter6597]

Ed, did you know “Wam”, Jim Harkins? He was one of the last QF4 pilots. He was combat qualified in the RAF Jaguar.

[@mnblkjh6757]

🇺🇸👍🙂

[@hansjfenneberg9717]

Hey, did you ever hear of the "Take over control" tactic of the Bullpup against invasion fleets in Scandinavia ?

[@rostamr4096]

I wonder if any of the Iranian Imperial Airfrce F-4 pilots were train but Mr. Ed Cobleigh in the 70's.

[@bentrovato3082]

Yeah, Ed has a pretty high opinion of himself - typical REO. I worked for him in the early 90's at Hughes.

[@rostamr4096]

The bridge was a truss structure...

[@rostamr4096]

You should have asked him about the mishaps during an air weapon display in Iran in the 70's in front of the Shah of Iran...

[@ndenise3460]

Laser, gps, tv guided, soon to be AI guided

[@homebase5934]

quantum navigation and quantum radar/sonar targeting with vidar/ir redundancy back up. Just trying to sound like i know what im talking about lol

[@major__kong]

You have to distinguish between the sensor and the command/guidance logic. Laser, gps, tv (EO or IR) are sensor systems. Bang-bang, PID, and proportional nav are command / guidance control systems. AI can be used to tackle several problems. First, AI can be used to find and track targets in an EO or IR feed. It's not technically a sensor in that role rather a perception system transforming data into information. Second, AI can be used for smart guidance, but that generally doesn't work as well as standard control theory. Third, AI can be used to make decisions such as this target has priority over that one or don't attack the target because it would cause too much collateral damage.

[@RedTail1-1]

That fake laugh is so condescending.