page_title: Hurricane Aircat
section_title: Postwar service
hierarchical_section_title: Hurricane Aircat / Operational history / Postwar service
caption_attribution_description: A Hurricane Aircat airboat used by Republic of Korea Special Forces during the Vietnam War. This airboat is on display at the War Memorial of Korea.
context_page_description: The Hurricane Aircat was an airboat used as a riverine patrol boat by the US Army and South Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War. It was used to conduct various counterinsurgency and patrol missions in riverine and marshy areas where larger boats could not go.
context_section_description: Following their service in Vietnam, Aircats were either transferred to other militaries or to civilian use. Starting in 1969, the US Army began to transfer Aircats to the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN). US forces began training ARVN troops to operate Aircats soon after the boat's introduction in 1964, and ARVN troops began crewing Aircats as early as 1967. In addition to regular ARVN troops, civilian irregulars crewed Aircats. These irregulars were paid by the South Vietnamese government to perform counterinsurgency and patrol missions along the Mekong River, especially in the Mekong Delta and surrounding area. These irregulars included forces from the Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) and Nung militiamen from the Mobile Strike Force Command (MIKE Force). US Navy personnel, including Navy SEALs, helped US Army Special Forces train these irregulars.
  Many Aircats returned to the United States, where they became widely used by civilians for recreation, commercial jobs, and environmental conservation. Aircats have been used by individuals for fishing, hunting, and personal travel and by companies for tours, geophysical surveying and oil exploration, mosquito control, and transporting workers to oil rigs and construction sites in marshlands. Estimating the number of military Aircats that ended up being transferred to civilians is difficult because Hurricane produced several civilian versions of the Aircat alongside the military model. Between the military and civilian models, over 800 Aircats were built. Some civilian Aircats are still in use today.
  Aircats are used widely for wildlife monitoring, biological sampling, and other activities in marshy wildlife preserves, especially in National Wildlife Refuges where they are operated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Some Fish and Wildlife Aircats are military surplus, while others are civilian models purchased new. Aircats have proved particularly valuable for bird banding, allowing researchers to band more birds and bird species than was possible using bait-trapping or other methods, although the loud noise of their engines can scare off wildlife.
  Some civilian Aircats have made their way outside the United States, where they have found use in 28 countries around the world. Outside the United States, Aircats have been used by civilians to transport lumberjacks in Pakistan, bring sick people to missionary clinics in East Pakistan (modern Bangladesh), control weeds on the Panama Canal, herd livestock in Venezuela, and transport animal specimens in Colombia.
caption: A Hurricane Aircat used by South Korean Special Forces in Vietnam. This airboat is on display at the War Memorial of Korea.
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