High level bombing
![USAF high level bombing through clouds over North Vietnam, 14 June 1966. An EB-66 tactical jamming aircraft leads four F-105 fighter-bombers as a Pathfinder. Also called synchronous radar bombing or buddy bombing, this method required the EB-66 navigator to use his K-5 radar bombing navigation system to detect the target and send a signal tone to the F-105s to drop their bombs. Throughout the bombing run, the Pathfinder employed its S-band jammers to suppress radar-controlled anti-aircraft guns. Radar film coverage from Pathfinder missions was accumulated by the USAF for more sophisticated and refined targeting, bomb damage assessment and photographic reconnaissance of North Vietnam.[1]](/Images/godic/202501/18/Bombing_in_Vietnam2902.jpg")
![The B-17 Flying Fortress, a famous World War II heavy bomber and high level bomber.](/Images/godic/202501/18/B-17_on_bomb_run2902.jpg")
![The Tu-95 Bear, a Soviet Cold War-era strategic bomber and high level bomber.](/Images/godic/202501/18/Tupolev_Tu-95_Marina2902.jpg")
High level bombing (also called high-altitude bombing) is a tactic of dropping bombs from bomber aircraft in level flight at high altitude (typically greater than 15,000 feet). The term is used in contrast to both World War II-era dive bombing and low level bombing.