RC-47 and AC-47 Electronic Recce Dakotas During the Korean War

[yahya]

I am looking for more information about the AC-47 operations during the Korean War and their mission avionics. These were the venerable Dakotas fitted with radio receivers and other electronic equipment to intercept North Korean messages while airborne. Ca. 26 such planes were converted by Hayes in 1953. Does anyone know the mission complement of these Dakotas?

Note the AC-47 planes were known as the EC-47 after 1962.

Please do not confuse these planes with the AC-47D Spooky gunships. During the Korean War, armed Dakotas could have been known as the FC-47.

 

[MIflyer]

They took some C-47's and equipped them as "AWACS" aircraft for Korea, installing multiple SCR-522 radios and operators so that they could receive messages from T-6 "Mosquito" FAC aircraft and relay the information to fighters and bombers from longer distances. They also took some C-47's and used them to spread roofing nails over the highways at night to immobilize NORK trucks so they could be destroyed in the daytime; this was described in a USAF Museum newsletter. I do not recall reading of any "AC-47's" being used for strafing runs in Korea, but they were in Burma during WW2.

 

[yahya]

Thank you for the reply. While interesting, the SCR-522 equipped Dakotas were not used for electronic reconnaissance as you wrote. The AC-47 in that time, as I stated above, would be the designation of electronic-equipped planes, not the later gunships. That change of nomenclature took place only around 1962.

I presume that if the Dakotas were equipped with the communications intercept gear during the Korean War, the radios would be the WW II-vintage high frequency receivers, like the Hammarlund SP-600 (aka R-270 or R-274A), RCA AR-88, Hallicrafters SX-28, Hallicrafters One (aka R-274D), National HRO or the post-war Collins 51J (aka R-388/URR) and Collins R-390.

 

[MIflyer]

They would be equipped with APR-1/APR-4 (I have a Korean War version of the APR-4 in my garage) covering 30 MHZ to 2.5 GHZ and higher for radar detection, and BC-348 for communications (I have six).
HF monitoring would use various receivers.

 

[yahya]

Awesome collection of ELINT receivers! Congrats on gathering them.

As to the AC-47 in Korea, I presume that these planes collected rather COMINT on HF, not ELINT. I wonder actually, if North Korea had any significant number of early warning and surveillance radars at its disposal.

I agree with you that the BC-348 would be an obvious choice, as some planes already flew with them along with the AN/ART-13 transmitters. The real COMINT job could have been implemented using the dedicated R-390s, but these receivers appeared only around 1953, i.e. in the last year of the Korean War.

I think that the matter is still open for discussion.

 

[MIflyer]

Congrats on gathering them.

Only one I actually have is the APR-4Y, the Korean War version of the APR-4, which used the smaller "miniature" tubes rather than the old WW2 octal tubes. The RT-45 shown was not only a receiver but also a transmitter, and I presume they could home in on hostile signals and jam them.

The USAF had a listening station on an island off the N Korean coast that focused on monitoring enemy aircraft communications. The Norks did not like that much and sent a bomber force to attack it, escorted by both Migs and LA-7's. The result was one of the larger air battles of the war.

 

[daviemax]

During the Korean war several B-17s were converted for covert missions, some may have been for ferreting; these apparently were operated by the CIA or delegated to the Tiawanese Air Force. At least one remained in USAF markings. In addition USN B-17s (PB-1W) performed the AWACS mission over Korea in 1953. Also, several SB-17s SAR aircraft were assigned to perform "secret missions" (as notated on their record cards) that may have been for either agent-dropping or ferreting (or both). Some of these latter aircraft did so in the course of normal SAR operations; others did so after having been reassigned to non-SAR units.

 

[yahya]

I think I found the right reference on the COMINT C-47 Dakotas in Korea. According to this source, they were known as the RC-47.

https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~jwheat/military/bluesky.html