A U.S. Navy North American RA-5C <i>Vigilante</i> aircraft (BuNo 150834) of Heavy Reconnaissance Squadron RVAH-13 <i>Bats</i> in flight over the Gulf of Tonkin. RVAH-13 was assigned to Carrier Air Wing 11 (CVW-11) aboard the aircraft carrier USS <i>Kitty Hawk</i> (CVA-63) for a deployment to Vietnam from 19 October 1965 to 13 June 1966. The U.S. Navy experimented with aircraft camouflage and painted half of the aircraft of CVW-11 with dark green colours to blend in with the Vietnamese jungle. The results proved inconclusive for the U.S. Navy, whereas the U.S. Air Force concluded that the camouflage was effective. U.S. Navy planes would not be camouflaged until the 1980s. 150834 was one of three replacement aircraft for RVAH-13 on this deployment, as the squadron had lost three of its six aircraft.
USN
1966
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