RAF/FAA F-35 weapons fit

[Tailspin Turtle]

On 10/22/2023 at 5:46 AM, Hook said:

And since the AMRAAM had to match the dimensions of the AIM-7 Sparrow, to enable carriage in the underfuselage recesses of the Phantom, the Meteor is still influenced by the design of a fighter that made its first flight in the 1950's. 

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

Strictly speaking, the Sparrow came first. The F4H Phantom was the still-borne, single-seat AH modified to accommodate four of them along with a 600-gallon bespoke center-line tank to meet the time-on-station requirement:

Edited October 23, 2023 by Tailspin Turtle

[Hook]

12 minutes ago, Tailspin Turtle said:

Strictly speaking, the Sparrow came first. The F4H Phantom was the still-borne, single-seat AH modified to accommodate four of them along with a 600-gallon bespoke centerline tank to provide the time on station requirement:

Thanks for the correction.

 

And I even have your excellent book!

 

Cheers,

 

Andre

[McG]

9 hours ago, Simon Cornes said:

Interesting. If you look at the photos of the bombs then I’d say that are GU-12’s, not Paveway IV’s due to the lack of GPS aerials. But then it is a USMC jet so it would be. Equally the 5th and 6th bombs were the same as the first 4 whereas the text referred to 1,000 lbs bombs carried internally so not 5 and 6 in the photo. Finally it’s interesting to see the different ‘sit’ of the bombs on the pylons with one pair parallel with the deck and the others pointing slightly downwards. Not sure how the journalist gets that tonnage of weaponry with such a load out though!

Would inert rounds have GPS aerials? 
 

 

[Simon Cornes]

3 hours ago, McG said:

Would inert rounds have GPS aerials? 
 

 

I’m guessing that an inert round would probably have a ‘live’ nose and tail?

[Selwyn]

4 hours ago, McG said:

Would inert rounds have GPS aerials? 
 

 

They are not inert rounds they are practice rounds. Light blue indicates practice, not inert  The Guidance and tails are the same as operational rounds. (Practice really means  "aircrew practice"  i.e. learning to drop and guide  these weapons).

 

Selwyn

[Dave Fleming]

Operational UK F-35s from QE over Syria seemed to have carried single ASRAAMs on the wing pylons (some a/c were observed with only 1 missile). AMRAAMs and PWIV in the weapons bays. Some of the footage suggested an interceptor config of just AAMs and possibly 4x AMRAAM in the bays - is that a real F-35 config or just the edited footage was misleading?

 

[Phone Phixer]

Have a look at this video on YouTube. The bombs appear during the last minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsKNEzcLuxU

 

There is a brief shot of a PW IV, but it is a drill example, being oxford blue, so not for flight.

All the practice LGB's being loaded are GBU 12's as they have no saddle.

 

This is purely for the current trials on the PoW. For regular use on the RAF/FAA F-35B's, PW IV is the usual LGB.

The trials are to establish the limits for take off and landing with "beast mode" in different sea states.

 

Rob.

 

 

[Simon Cornes]

Seems like just USMC jets?

[McG]

14 hours ago, Dave Fleming said:

Operational UK F-35s from QE over Syria seemed to have carried single ASRAAMs on the wing pylons (some a/c were observed with only 1 missile). AMRAAMs and PWIV in the weapons bays. Some of the footage suggested an interceptor config of just AAMs and possibly 4x AMRAAM in the bays - is that a real F-35 config or just the edited footage was misleading?

 

 

There’s a UK MoD pic in this article showing 2 AMRAAM in the right hand side weapons bay. 

 

[FatFlyHalf]

The aircraft costs so much  (and in US$) that the MoD have decided on a substantial cost saving measure and issue aircrew with bows and arrows.

But only a limited number of arrows per a/c.

[Simon Cornes]

1 hour ago, FatFlyHalf said:

The aircraft costs so much  (and in US$) that the MoD have decided on a substantial cost saving measure and issue aircrew with bows and arrows.

But only a limited number of arrows per a/c.

And 6 bows per squadron ?

[FatFlyHalf]

And 6 bows per squadron ?

Yup.  One to each operational aircraft.

The rest are being mended or fitted out with multi-launch slingshots.

Edited October 23, 2023 by FatFlyHalf
Jesting

[Dave Fleming]

4 hours ago, McG said:

 

There’s a UK MoD pic in this article showing 2 AMRAAM in the right hand side weapons bay. 

 

 

Thanks - I'd wondered how the second AMRAAM was fitted (and the graphic confirms that stations 4 and 8 can be used for AAMs) - so UK 'Interceptor/fighter' fit looks like 2x ASRAAM and 4x AIM-120 based on the footage form the BBC QE series

 

 

[Phone Phixer]

15 hours ago, Simon Cornes said:

Seems like just USMC jets?

They are from the combined test squadron VX-23. The UK has full access to the aircraft and has pilots embedded on the squadron.

The test aircraft have extra sensors wired into the airframe to measure stress and fatigue use for the trials. More data is collected than using a standard line jet.

They all just happen to have US markings, but you notice they have PWLS added on the tails for this deployment.

[Simon Cornes]

9 hours ago, Phone Phixer said:

They are from the combined test squadron VX-23. The UK has full access to the aircraft and has pilots embedded on the squadron.

The test aircraft have extra sensors wired into the airframe to measure stress and fatigue use for the trials. More data is collected than using a standard line jet.

They all just happen to have US markings, but you notice they have PWLS added on the tails for this deployment.

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

[Steve McArthur]

I wanted to point out something to consider when interpreting photo references. This is a photo from the article linked to earlier that shows mounting two AIM-120s. To me this looks like it's probably a test jet. I've highlighted a few places were it looks like there may be orange wire harnesses. Orange has special meaning in aircraft. It indicates non-standard test equipment and wiring for additional sensors to measure things not usually instrumented. Normal operational jets would not have this. You really only see this in aircraft involved in test programs.  Sometimes it's a dedicated flight test vehicle that never will see operational service, sometimes it's a line jet pulled from operational service for a brief test program.  

 

 

Below is a more extensive example, all the orange wiring and orange boxes are non-standard.  To the right side of the photo mid way down you can see a loose coil of orange wire that someone was probably in the process of routing when they were interrupted for the photo. I think this is one of the initial prototypes, so would be more heavily instrumented than a plane that is testing minor mods like the one above. On the prototypes some of this is installed during initial assembly of the plane, but other stuff would come and go as the needs of the program changed. 

 

I only bring this up because I've seen a few models where the builder has used photos like the one below to super detail the weapons bays and add a bunch of stuff that shouldn't be there based on the markings they chose to finish the plane in. This seems to be more of an issue with the F-35 than other planes because most of the detail photos that are out on the web are coming out of the prototypes and test squadrons instead of operational squadrons. 

 

Edited October 25, 2023 by Steve McArthur