[click picture to engage enlargificator]An F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot from the 79th Fighter Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., heads out to the fight April 28, 2011, during Green Flag West 11-6. Green Flag West provides a realistic close-air support training environment for Airmen and Soldiers preparing to deploy in support of combat operations. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald)
Has the rule changed, or did AF Info get this one wrong?
Of course, the pilot could be going out for recce-only, and would have been briefed he couldn't shoot back if jumped, but such an order wouldn't have passed safety muster in my days in the "flag" exercises (Red Flag X3, Maple Flag X1).
We have a rather huge bombing range north of here - I think among the biggest in the world.
He's also got what look like a Stinger-minus-the-handgrip on each of the outboard hard points -- 'cept the AF doesn't mount Stingers on anything. They could be telemetry pods for doing any number of interesting things, though -- I've got one that was used for HIRTA assessment when microwave emitters were turning Black Hawks into Lawn Darts in the mid-80s.
Then there's the two bags of gas on Stations 4 & 5 which are, if I remember correctly, stressed to the max g-loading the jet can pull. I may be wrong on that--could be g-limited or variable based on fuel on board...
Two mav/targeting pods on the fuselage stations--the top one (smaller white one) is a LANTIRN (Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night) pod. I believe the big green one is a AN/AAQ-28(V) LITENING targeting pod (probably a 4th generation) that is used for standoff laser-guided weapons in night/marginal conditions...it can search, laser designate, and aid in navigation.
This guy looks like he's configured for an air-to-air fight from a CAP station (hence the extra fuel tanks) but that may be because he's already delivered his air-to-ground ordnance and is either swinging to CAP or going home...or he could just be shining his a$$ for the guy with the camera;)
P.S. The long thing on the fuselage centerline between the targeting pods is another parent mount that is almost exclusively used for a fuel tank...deployment configuration would put a third bag on that station.
Overlord 2, "Raghead 1? Overlord 2, on common."
Raghead 1, "Go ahead, Overlord 2."
Overlord 2, "Roger. Just a reminder. Your weapons are "dead". Mine aren't. If you attempt to depart your assigned airspace, you will be, too, Copy?"
(Radio silence...)
0>:~}
2. The USAF still doesn’t allow one aircraft on one sortie to carry both live and inert/training air-to-air ordnance. However, you could always put a CAP-9 or CATM-120 (pilot training versions with inert rocket motors and war-heads) on the same sortie as live air-to-ground ordnance, e.g. Mk-82/84, GBU-10/12/24, etc.
3. In this photo, there is no apparent live ordnance. As has already been pointed out, you can easily see the blue bands on the CATM-120s (3 each for rocket motor, warhead and gas-grain generator [small solid rocket type propellant used to turn a gas turbine to provide power for the guidance and control systems from the time of separation from friendly aircraft until impact with hostile aircraft]). If you enlarge, you can see that stations 3 and 7 have empty air-to-ground pylons. If this mission really just started, than, as Dusty pointed out, this is probably a CAP mission. It is also likely that the pilot has already expended his air-to-ground ordnance. However, if it was an air-to-ground mission, I would have expected to see an ALQ pod on station 5. We normally deployed with a fuel tank on station 5 and then swapped it for a jamming pod after arriving at our deployed location
4. Station 2 has an ACMI pod. It is used as a data link during war-games, especially a Flag. It provides real time interface between all participants, as well as a “view’ of the game to leadership gathered in a theater for that purpose. It tells who wins and who loses air-to-air engagements. It is supposed to be as real as it gets without anybody deploying their ejection seats.
This briefing is unclassified. All of this info is available in Janes’, All the World’s Aircraft. You can find an article on the ACMI pod in Wikipedia.
2. The USAF still doesn’t allow one aircraft on one sortie to carry both live and inert/training air-to-air ordnance. However, you could always put a CAP-9 or CATM-120 (pilot training versions with inert rocket motors and war-heads) on the same sortie as live air-to-ground ordnance, e.g. Mk-82/84, GBU-10/12/24, etc.
3. In this photo, there is no apparent live ordnance. As has already been pointed out, you can easily see the blue bands on the CATM-120s (3 each for rocket motor, warhead and gas-grain generator [small solid rocket type propellant used to turn a gas turbine to provide power for the guidance and control systems from the time of separation from friendly aircraft until impact with hostile aircraft]). If you enlarge, you can see that stations 3 and 7 have empty air-to-ground pylons. If this mission really just started, than, as Dusty pointed out, this is probably a CAP mission. It is also likely that the pilot has already expended his air-to-ground ordnance. However, if it was an air-to-ground mission, I would have expected to see an ALQ pod on station 5. We normally deployed with a fuel tank on station 5 and then swapped it for a jamming pod after arriving at our deployed location
4. Station 2 has an ACMI pod. It is used as a data link during war-games, especially a Flag. It provides real time interface between all participants, as well as a “view’ of the game to leadership gathered in a theater for that purpose. It tells who wins and who loses air-to-air engagements. It is supposed to be as real as it gets without anybody deploying their ejection seats.
This briefing is unclassified. All of this info is available in Janes’, All the World’s Aircraft. You can find an article on the ACMI pod in Wikipedia.
If you look carefully at the part of the skin that is a sooty color just below and behind the pilot: that is the gun blast port.
Yeah, but he'll CLAIM he did...
For Rivrdog:
It's slightly less than the performance penalty for B-52s carrying externally...