F-15E loadout AFTER mission completed?

[PIPboy]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm currently rebuilding on an old Academy F-15E which I built about 10 years ago. I'm experimenting with new tricks and learning new techniques on it but I still wan't to make it as accurate as possible.

 

My problem is that some parts are missing. I can recreate most of them using plastic sheets but that's hopeless in the case of the drop tanks and I don't want to invest money in a rebuilt kit. F-15Es always had drop tanks on them during Desert Storm according to this website so I thought maybe I'll build a diorama with the aircraft returning after mission.

 

Here are my questions:

 

Did SCUD hunting F-15Es drop their tanks if they engaged the enemy during their mission?

In what order are the bombs dropped from the hardpoints? I'm planning to build either loadout 1 or 4 if this makes any difference.

 

 

[Murph]

37 minutes ago, PIPboy said:

Did SCUD hunting F-15Es drop their tanks if they engaged the enemy during their mission?

 

It was up to the pilot, but generally they would keep the tanks on unless they were defensively reacting: aka somebody was shooting at them.

 

Regards,

Murph

[Boman]

As most F-15E carries a mix of different weapons, the use depends on target to be taken out. Hence no real "order" of release. 

[PIPboy]

Thank you both!

 

So a scene which shows the F-15 taxiing with the drop tanks missing and let's say 1 or 2 GBUs missing from random hardpoints should be fine?

[Julien]

Not an expert but I would have thought if they had to drop the tanks for evasive reactions the bombs would go as well? Just keep their missiles?

 

Julien

[Murph]

On ‎4‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 11:09 AM, Julien said:

Not an expert but I would have thought if they had to drop the tanks for evasive reactions the bombs would go as well? Just keep their missiles?

 

Julien

It depends.  The tanks would be the first thing to go, but if getting rid of the tanks provided enough extra speed/G available then the pilot would at least make an attempt to keep the bombs, so the mission could be completed.  The thing to keep in mind is that a strike aircraft is going to try and avoid a fight to begin with, or at least keep it BVR, both of which could well mean getting rid of the tanks, for the extra airspeed, while still keeping the air to ground weapons.

 

Regards,

Murph

[Julien]

3 hours ago, Murph said:

It depends.  The tanks would be the first thing to go, but if getting rid of the tanks provided enough extra speed/G available then the pilot would at least make an attempt to keep the bombs, so the mission could be completed.  The thing to keep in mind is that a strike aircraft is going to try and avoid a fight to begin with, or at least keep it BVR, both of which could well mean getting rid of the tanks, for the extra airspeed, while still keeping the air to ground weapons.

 

Regards,

Murph

Thx for the explanation Murph. Always good to know.

 

Julien

[whiskey]

So coincidentally I am currently reading William L. Smallwood’s book “Strike Eagle: Flying The F-15E In The Gulf War.”  It is an account of all the F-15E pilots during Desert Storm and I can list off the points that need to be made for answering your question.

 

1) There was only a handful of times where the Mudhen's became engaged with any Iraqi air assets. The only times that dropped tanks were ejected was during a SAM fight. When they were going out to western Iraq doing the Scud hunting they needed them as much as possible as the tanker planes only came up to the Saudi/ Iraqi border. Triple-A would not cause the pilots to lose the tanks but if the SAM's popped up and the crew could identify that it was tracking on them then more than likely they would punch the tank so as not lose momentum with the added drag.

2) I am almost done with the book and so far I've read only one mission were the crew dropped their payload early and that was the "Shaka Your Shorts Raid" on February 11, 1991. Eight ship mission that called for a deep interdiction about 15 miles south southeast of Baghdad to destroy fixed wing aircraft at the Shayka Mazar airfield. Capt Greg "Moose" Barlow, the flight lead, kicked his bombs  off early because he was acquired by no less than three SAM's going into the target area.

3) As far as actually dropping the bombs, the crew had an option when pickling them. They could either do it on auto through the computers, or they could do it manually. When dropping manually bombs could be pickled 1 at a time, 6 at a time, or all 12 if that's what they were carrying which they mostly where when SCUD hunting.

4) They always carried AIM-9's.

5) I don't know the date but it wasn't until at least 2-3 weeks after the air campaign started that the Strike Eagles started to employ LGB's as well so keep in mind that they had those along with the targeting pods as well depending on which aircraft you plan on depicting.

 

Hope this helps!

[Hook]

What scale are you building? I may have 1/72nd spares.

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[junglierating]

Well ive never worked on F15 but from the sea harrier days...pylon is selected then if you have multiple stores then they would drop in a defined sequence....clearly if this was not the case then you have a situation of an asymetric load which is not aerodynamic i would imagine if the F15 had say 4 pylons with maybe two bombs per pylon the the weapons / tac processor equivilent would 'compute' the dropping sequence.

Whether you get that info about an in service aircraft is subject to conjecture.

[whiskey]

This is the EXACT loadout chart for the Strike Eagles during Desert Storm : https://www.dstorm.eu/pages/loadout/f-15e.html

[Finn]

I remember reading somewhere that during Scud missions they would drop a bomb in certain areas where they thought Scuds may be, just to keep the Scud crews under cover so and not fire off their missile so having a F-15E return to base with a bomb or two missing would be okay.

 

Jari

[whiskey]

Yeah they did that as confirmed by the book I read. It was really hard to find the launchers on in west Iraq if they were not about to launch as the heat signatures would be more prominent.