1964
	6 January	In a tactical training exercise, 18 Lockheed F-104 Starfighters deployed from George AFB, CA to Moron AB, Spain. The 6,150 mile flight took 10hr 20min and required air-to-air refuelling six times.
	29 February	President Johnson officially revealed the existance of the Lockheed A-12 programme, but incorrectly referred to it as the A-11 and held up a picture of the YF-12A interceptor prototype, that was still secret.
	9 June	For the first time, SAC air-refuelling tankers were used to support combat operations in Southeast Asia. Four KC-135s from Clark AB, Philippines refuelled eight F-100 Super Sabre fighter-bombers en route to strike Pathet Lao gun emplacements on the plain of Jars in northern Laos.
	August	The first Northrop F-5 tactical strike fighters were delivered to the 4441st Combat Crew Training Squadron at Williams AFB, where they were used to train crews for the countries being supplied with F-5s under the Military Assistance Program (MAP).
	5 August	A major build-up of USAF forces in Southeast Asia began with the arrival of 36 Martin B-57s, 12 F-102 Delta Daggers, eight F-100 Super Sabres, and six additional RF-101 Voodoos at bases in Vietnam. Ten F-100s and eight F-105 Thunderchiefs were also deployed to Thailand.
	7 August	The US government put the country on a war footing after the so-called Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The destoyers USS Maddox and C Turner Joy destroyers had been attacked by the Viet Cong on 2 August.
	10 August	USAF officials reported that China had delivered MiG-15 and MiG-17 fighters to Hanoi, together with pilots to train North Vietnamese airmen.
	9 September	The first MiG-25 interceptor prototype flew on September 9th and followed the recce prototype which flew on March 6, earllier this year. The Mig-25, codenamed Foxbat by NATO, was developed to counter the Lockheed A-12, the forerunner of the SR-71 Blackbird. and not, as was originally thought, the Mach 3-capable B-70 Valkyrie bomber. The entire design was optimized for the high altitude interception mission, with high speed and rate of climb as priorities, at the expense of maneuvrability and endurance.
	1 November	The first USAF ground losses in South Vietnam occurred, when five Martin B-57s were destroyed and 15 more damaged, together with an H-43 helicopter, by a Viet Cong mortar attack on their base.
	2 December	Four TAC F-4 Phantoms, refuelled several times by SAC KC-135 Stratotankers, completed an 18-hour flight of 10,000 miles, in an endurance test of long-range deployment capabilities.
	9-10 December	USAF Douglas A-1H and A-1E Skyraiders inflicted more than 400 Viet Cong casualties during air strikes in Quang Tin and Binh Din provinces.
	14 December	USAF tactical fighters launched Operation Barrell Roll, an attack on the vital Communist supply route in northern Laos known as the 'Ho Chi Minh Trail'.
	23 December	The first prototype Lockheed SR-71A Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft (64-17950) was flown.