Some F-15 datalink information

[henshao]

Probably not news to some on these forums but it seems 1 squadron of 18+ F-15Cs was equipped with JTIDS at least by the early 90s

 

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA383389.pdf

 

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA437368 ->https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA437368.pdf

 

Quote

Twenty-five F-15s are equipped with

TADIL J AN/URC-107 (V) Class 2 radio sets. Twenty are stationed with the 390th

Fighter Squadron (Mountain Home, Idaho). The other five are part of the 57th Test

Group located at Nellis Air Force Base (AFB), Nevada, and are used for tactics

development. The remainder of the F-15 inventory is slated to receive the lower cost

MIDS Fighter Data Link radio set.

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA404334.pdf

 

kind of reminds me of a comment I saw regarding LOMAC's "easy radar" menu setting...in some ways it was actually the more realistic way to play

Edited October 14, 2021 by henshao

[GGTharos]

Yep, the Elmendorf birds tested the terminals and they were found to be lacking, this is why they were not deployed to the rest of the force.

[henshao]

On 10/16/2021 at 5:39 PM, GGTharos said:

Yep, the Elmendorf birds tested the terminals and they were found to be lacking, this is why they were not deployed to the rest of the force.

Did they have issues with update rate or something? Or avionics weight?

[GGTharos]

They didn't really say but, I have my suspicions as those were IIRC full terminals and they're now getting less than.   I think miniaturization played a huge role, as well as processing capability.

Edited July 14, 2022 by GGTharos

[Rainmaker]

JTIDS and FDL really arent the same thing. JTIDS was tanked, never fleet integrated, and there was nothing until FDL was integrated much later down the road. The JTIDS cockpit hardware was repurposed but the guts of the system are not really close at all. 

Edited July 15, 2022 by Rainmaker

[henshao]

Oh, there's no confusion that the original JTIDS and the later MIDS are different animals. Just that ~25 birds had JTIDS at least before '93 (5 in '86). Of course much of this has been discussed ad nauseum over the decades. I know we'll never get DL for the FC3 F-15C. ED won't even fix basic discrepancies which have been around for years, let alone give us a functional new SIT-uation page or that simple ability to drop an iron bomb which McDonnell engineers worked so hard at (and occasionally was so successfully used; Eagle's accuracy was considered equal or better than A-7D/E, A-6A, F-111A/D). My main point was really that a similar number of F-15Cs from the era had a Link-16 datalink, as MiG-29Gs or Su-33s (other FC3 modules) that ever operated; it would have been justified, had ED done so (perhaps they would have split the module into F-15C and F-15C/DL, or something). My research shows that the 125lb JTIDS terminal in question, AN/URC-107(V6), was the same as was later put into the F-14D although without some of the Tomcat's limitations. A minor point of note is the F-15C JTIDS terminal output power is 200MW, as compared to the later F-15C MIDS-LVT3/FDL terminal 50MW output (USQ-140(V)3(C))

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/36720827.pdf   (IOC 1992 for F-15)

 

join me in my lamentations

 

 

[henshao]

On 10/16/2021 at 5:39 PM, GGTharos said:

Yep, the Elmendorf birds tested the terminals and they were found to be lacking, this is why they were not deployed to the rest of the force.

Oh, and minor note: these were Idaho birds, not Alaska. IE the JTIDS eagles were not the AESA eagles AFAIK