List of US aircraft losses to missiles during the Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War, the U.S. confirmed 205 aircraft lost to North Vietnamese surface-to-air missiles, all by S-75 Dvina.

However, some of the U.S aircraft "crashed in flight accidents", and were lost to S-75 missiles. When landing at an airfield in Thailand, one B-52 was heavily damaged by a SAM, rolled off of the runway and exploded on mines installed around the airfield to protect from the guerrillas, only one crewman survived. Subsequently, this B-52 was counted as "crashed in flight accidents". According to Dana Drenkowski and Lester W. Grau, the number of U.S aircraft lost, confirmed by the U.S. is uncorroborated since the U.S figures are also suspect. If a plane was badly damaged, but managed to land, the USAF did not normally count it as an aerial combat loss, even if it was too damaged to fly again.[1]

During the Vietnam war, the Soviet Union delivered 95 S-75 systems and 7,658 missiles to the North Vietnamese. 6,806 missiles were launched or removed because they were outdated (including 5,800 launches[2]). In total, the U.S lost 3,374 fixed wing aircraft in combat during the war; in both North and South Vietnam. According to the North Vietnamese, 31% were shot down by S-75 missiles (1,046 aircraft, or 6 missiles per one kill); 60% were shot down by anti-aircraft guns; and 9% were shot down by MiG fighters. The S-75 missile system significantly improved the effectiveness of North Vietnamese anti-aircraft artillery, which used data from S-75 radar stations[3]

The following is a list of 205 U.S aircraft lost to surface-to-air missiles during the Vietnam War (confirmed by the U.S).