Weapons of the Vietnam War

During the early stages of their insurgency, the Viet Cong mainly sustained itself with captured arms (often of American manufacture)[1] or crude, self-made weapons (e.g. copies of the US Thompson submachine gun[2] and shotguns made of galvanized pipes).

[8] The period up to the conventional phase in the 1970, the Viet Cong and NVA were mostly limited to mortars, recoilless rifles, and small-arms and had significantly lighter equipment and firepower relative to the US arsenal, relying on ambushes, with superior stealth, planning, marksmanship, and small-unit tactics to face the disproportionate US technological advantage.

[citation needed] This was ultimately traced to an inadequately tested switch in propellants from DuPont's proprietary IMR 4475 to Olin's WC 846, that Army Ordnance had ordered out of concern for standardization and mass production capacity.

[citation needed] The heavily armored, 90 mm gun M48A3 'Patton' tank saw extensive action during the Vietnam War and over 600 were deployed with U.S. forces.

[13] Artillery was used extensively by both sides but the Americans were able to ferry the lightweight 105 mm M102 howitzer by helicopter to remote locations on quick notice.

[14][15] With its 17-mile (27 km) range, the Soviet 130 mm M-46 towed field gun was a highly regarded weapon and used to good effect by the PAVN.

At their disposal ground forces had access to B-52 and F-4 Phantom II and others to launch napalm, white phosphorus, tear gas and chemical weapons as well.

[19] The aircraft ordnance used during the war included precision-guided munition, cluster bombs, a thickening–gelling agent generally mixed with petroleum or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, initially against buildings and later mostly as an anti-personnel weapon that sticks to skin and can burn down to the bone.

(listed alphabetically by modified/basic mission code, then numerically in ascending order by design number/series letter) (listed numerically in ascending order by design number/series letter, then alphabetically by mission code) In addition to cargo-carrying and troop transport roles, many of these vehicles were also equipped with weapons and sometimes armor, serving as "gun trucks" for convoy escort duties.

From 1965 to the final redeployment of tactical units, numerous communications-electronics systems were introduced in Vietnam to upgrade the quality and quantity of tactical communications and replace obsolete gear: Encryption systems developed by the National Security Agency and used in Vietnam included:[272] The PAVN and the Southern communist guerrillas, the Viet Cong (VC) as they were commonly referred to during the war, largely used standard Warsaw Pact weapons.