www.ne.jp/asahi/gonavy/atsugi/
VERY COOL
I don't disagree with your observations about the AIM-9C in the least, once again, I'm just reporting what I saw in the available UNCLASS unit histories. Now that I'm home it's easier to transfer more text. Here are the cruises I was able to positively verify to have had AIM-9Cs:
The VF-211 'Checkmates' were the first squadron to deploy with “modest quantities†of the AIM-9C 'SARAH' during their October 1964 to May 1965 cruise aboard the USS Hanco*ck. The first firing of an AIM-9C occurred during an operational readiness inspection (ORI) on 30 October 1964. In a head-on engagement at a range of 5.5 nm, with a closing speed of Mach 1.66, and the “augmented†Regulas I target flying 3,000 feet higher than the F-8E, the SARAH severed the wing and tail of the target.
VF-211 again carried AIM-9Cs on its November 1965 to August 1966 cruise to aboard the USS Hanco*ck. During this cruise, VF-211 wanted the heat-seeking AIM-9Ds selected first and worked to develop a habit pattern so that in the heat of battle the right missile would be selected. Consequently, they loaded the AIM-9C on the upper right launcher (and lower right if two were carried). Early in the cruise, two SARAHs were carried, but this was soon re-duced to one because of missile reliability. So far as is known, no AIM-9Cs were actually launched in combat.
The main challenge for VF-211 was getting the missiles to tune with the aircraft radar. Once tuned, they were ready to be used. Unfortunately, the operational environment proved the un-doing of the delicate SARAH electronics. After a couple of months of high-tempo combat operations, the seekers began to fail. During flight the pilots kept the SARAHs selected with the master arm switch turned off so they could monitor the tuning status. Some missiles would lose their tune after a period of time while others would not tune at all. Eventually, their reliability became so bad that they were withdrawn from service.
VF-211 again deployed with the AIM-9C during its January to August 1967 cruise aboard the USS Bon Homme Richard. This time they carried the AIM-9Cs on the left side of the aircraft to take advantage of its head-on capability. On 1 May 1967, LCDR 'Mo' Wright, flying 'Nickel-104' (BuNo 150303) engaged several MiG-17s with a load of one AIM-9C and two AIM-9Ds (apparently the #1 station was not functional as no missile was loaded there). En-tering combat with the AIM-9C selected, he had to manually switch to an AIM-9Ds to shoot down the first MiG-17 he encountered. However, in the heat of battle, he inadvertently switched past station #3 to the #4 missile. After shooting down the first Fresco with #4, the system automatically sequenced back to #1, found it empty and sequenced on to #2, the AIM-9C. LCDR Wright, thinking he had fired the #3 missile, believed station #4 was 'hot' when he encountered a second MiG-17. In the resulting confusion, he missed the opportunity to bag the second MiG.
Two AIM-9Cs were carried on stations #1 and #2 of Nickel-101 (BuNo 150348) on 19 May 1967 when CDR Paul Speer used the two AIM-9Ds on stations #3 and #4 to down a MiG-17. In this case, the firing doctrine was followed successfully and even though the first IRAH failed to guide, the second one bagged the Fresco.
VF-162 carried AIM-9Cs during its June 1967 to May 1968 cruise aboard the USS Oriskany. It reported firing one AIM-9C during its 20 November to 16 December line period.
The AIM-9C was again utilized during the January to October 1968 cruise of VF-53 aboard USS Bon Homme Richard. In their post-cruise report, one AIM-9C was noted as part of the Night BarCAP, ForceCAP, and MiGCAP configurations, along with one AIM-9D. It was specified that while VF-53 used this configuration, their sister squadron, VF-51, flying F-8Hs, did not.
VF-211 carried AIM-9Cs during its July 1968 to March 1969 cruise aboard the USS Hanco*ck. During February 1968 training for this cruise, nine AIM-9Cs were expended while fly-ing F-8Es. Beginning in mid-March the squadron transitioned to the newer F-8H and, during a subsequent deployment to NAS Fallon, LCDR Dick Taylor shot down a BQM-34 Firebee drone with an AIM-9C during a head-on engagement. The squadron reported firing two AIM-9Cs in June. During the actual cruise, one AIM-9C was expended during August, but this was probably during the 17-20 August training near the Philippine Islands rather than the 23 August to 4 September line period on Yankee Station when no MiG engagements were reported.
VF-211 reported their final two AIM-9C expenditures in June 1969, after having transitioned from the F-8H to the F-8J in May. No AIM-9Cs were expended during their August 1969 to April 1970 cruise aboard the USS Hanco*ck.
In July 1970, it was decided to withdraw the SARAHs from operation as part of major force reduc-tions. This was during VF-53's April to November 1970 cruise aboard the USS Bon Homme Richard. Their post-cruise report said the AIM-9C “was scrapped as having too restrictive an envelope, [being too] difficult to maintain and in need of major rework for which funds were not available. This loss reduced the F-8J's all-weather capability and seriously degraded the night Barrier Combat Air Patrol (BarCAP) threat response ability.â€
The rest of the cruise reports were simply too poor (or non-existant) to determine one way or another whether or not AIM-9Cs (or anything else for that matter) were used.
