The MiG-17s were dispersed out into the countryside, carried by large Mil Mi-6 helicopters to the dispersal sites, and carried back to the airfields when missions were to be flown
US aircraft targeted Vietnamese People’s Air Force (VPAF) air bases for the first time in the spring of 1966. The strikes on the MiG airfields at Dong Hoi and Vinh forced a reevaluation of North Vietnam’s air strategy against a numerically superior American military. Previously, Washington had deemed the airfields off-limits (and later in the war, the bases were not authorized to be targeted).
Over 70,000 steel-reinforced concrete plates were stockpiled at the airfields in order to facilitate a rapid restoration, as JP Santiago describes in an interesting article that appeared on his website, Tails Through Time. In addition, a lot of bamboo stems were also stockpiled to be employed for airfield repair. Underground command centers for the base staff were built, as well as camouflaged revetments—some of which were even disguised as huts.
According to Zoltan Buza and Istvan Toperczer in Wings of Fame, Volume 8, article “MiG-17 Over Vietnam,” in order to protect the VPAF’s small MiG-17 force, the aircraft were dispersed in the countryside, carried to these sites by large Mil Mi-6 helicopters, and carried back to the airfields when missions were supposed to be flown. During the war, these sites also saw the dispersion of fuel and ammunition, since it was discovered that a Mi-6 could transport a fully armed and fueled MiG-17 to the airfields from a distance of up to thirty miles.
The aircraft were ready for their missions against impending American strike packages in underground shelters built into the mountains close to the bases. After that, a Mi-6 would carry the fighter as an underslung load to the closest airbase, where it would take off, complete the mission, and then return to the base so that the helicopters could carry it back to shelters miles away by the helicopters.
Fighters were also scattered throughout villages and agricultural cooperatives in areas where the terrain hindered the MiG force from building underground shelters.