"Dancing with Death" was the satirical term used by US Air Force combat pilots to describe evasive maneuvering while facing advanced Soviet surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) over Vietnam.
With the introduction of the S75, US pilots began to quickly craft tactics to dodge the deadly missile systems.
The aggressive missile evading maneuvers and tactics were jokingly refereed as "Dancing with Death." The pilots generally had only few seconds to react and failure meant certain death. To avoid being hit, pilots would employ high-G turns, low level flying, and turning toward the sun (to spoof infrared seekers)
Americans not only devised tactics but decided to suppress the threat by creating special units armed with AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missile designed to home in on hostile anti-aircraft radar, and special units, named Wild Weasels, to use the new weapon systems and tactics.
The launch platforms of these missiles were the A-4 Skyhawk, A-6 Intruder, F-105 Thunderchief, and F-4 Phantom II aircraft.
Using hunter-killer teams, a Wild Weasel aircraft would guide a flight of Thuds loaded with bombs and rockets to find the SAM sites and destroy them.
The Wild Weasels would fly in ahead of a strike package to clear the area of SAMs, stay over the target during the bombing raid in order to attack any other SAMs or AAA that appeared, and then maintain their position until the bombers left the area, at which time they themselves would head for home as well.
This led to incredibly long, dangerous missions for the Wild Weasel crews--often three to five hours of intense flying in hostile air space. It also led to another motto for the Wild Weasels: "First In, Last Out." #zerofoxtrot #stayzero #wildweasel #vietnam