Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military From: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: AA Missiles on weapon racks? Message-ID: <1990Jul23.202537.6465@cbnews.att.com> Date: 23 Jul 90 20:25:37 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 39 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Mary Shafer Scott Silvey (scott%sting.Berkeley.EDU@) writes: >Are air to air missiles ever mounted on multiple weapon racks > to increase the missile carrying capacity of combat aircraft? > I'm thinking of the weapon racks that allow 2 or 3 weapons to > be carried on each hardpoint. Is this even feasable? Do > these racks require that all their weapons be released simul- > taneously? >I've seen configurations with multiple Mavericks per hardpoint, > so I don't THINK they require simultaneous release. I just > can't think of any reason why I haven't noticed multiple > Sparrows or Sidewinders per hardpoint (excluding special cases > like the F-14 or F-15 which can carry 2 Sidewinders on the > inboard mounts in addition to a standard weapon load). The F-18 routinely carries two Sidewinders on a pylon at each of the outermost inboard (i.e. not at the wing tip, but under the wing) stations. They are launched independently. In fact, if you have missiles on both stations and fire more than one, they alternate sides automatically. You're not allowed to mix different models on a pylon, however (either AIM-9Ls or AIM-9Ms, but not both). The pylon which holds two Sidewinders is a standard device used by all the services. I know it's used on the F-15. The F-18 doesn't carry Sparrows on a multiple pylon. I don't think that there is a multiple Sparrow pylon or they'd hang them on the F-18. Sparrows are bigger than Sidewinders and may not have the proper separation characteristics for a dual pylon. -- Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA "A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all"--Unknown US fighter pilot