Operation Igloo White was a covert United States joint military electronic warfare operation conducted from late January 1968 until February 1973, during the
Vietnam War. These missions were carried out by the
553rd Reconnaissance Wing, a
U.S. Air Force unit flying modified
EC-121R Warning Star aircraft, and
VO-67, a specialized
U.S. Navy unit flying highly modified
OP-2E Neptune aircraft. This state-of-the-art operation utilized electronic sensors, computers, and communications relay aircraft in an attempt to automate intelligence collection. The system would then assist in the direction of strike aircraft to their targets. The objective of those attacks was the logistical system of the
People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) that snaked through southeastern
Laos and was known as the
Ho Chi Minh Trail (the Truong Son Road to the North Vietnamese).