Asimmetrical loadouts

[hreich]

I found these pictures of asimmetrical loadouts for F-18...I was wondering why they are not using same weapons for oposing hardpoints?

[Kevlon]

because they didnt need too. :)

[britgliderpilot]

because they didnt need too. :)

 

Hmmn.

 

My answer was going to be one of two reasons:

 

1 - Because They Can!

 

2 - Because the Super Airbrake requires at least two external fuel tanks to have a combat radius any larger than it had been thrown off the catapult with it's engines off, so they need weird loadouts to balance the aircraft, have a combat radius, and actually carry some weapons as well. Aka the Boeing Super Compromise.

[Cobra360]

Hmmn.

 

My answer was going to be one of two reasons:

 

1 - Because They Can!

 

2 - Because the Super Airbrake requires at least two external fuel tanks to have a combat radius any larger than it had been thrown off the catapult with it's engines off, so they need weird loadouts to balance the aircraft, have a combat radius, and actually carry some weapons as well. Aka the Boeing Super Compromise.

 

The Superslow Hornet gets stung again.

[MBot]

2 - Because the Super Airbrake requires at least two external fuel tanks to have a combat radius any larger than it had been thrown off the catapult with it's engines off...

 

:D

[Shaman]

sponsored by .. Texaco

;)

[Groove]

Hmm so the Hornet / Superhornet isnt a good plane ? I didnt knew about this issues. Could any1 provide us with more details please ?

[Starlight]

sponsored by .. Texaco

;)

 

not a good idea to have super-thirsty jet aircraft today

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20051010/ts_usatoday/oilrichcountriestapintonewpoliticalpower

[britgliderpilot]

Hmm so the Hornet / Superhornet isnt a good plane ? I didnt knew about this issues. Could any1 provide us with more details please ?

 

Hehehe, we just like bashing it :p

 

The Hornet (and Super Hornet in particular) are easy to maintain, relatively easy to fly, have highly automated systems, superb on-board avionics, carry a wide variety of very cool weapons (quite a few of them in the case of the Super Hornet), wonderful low-speed AoA control . . . . the politicians like it because it's cheap, and there is no doubt that the avionics are just wonderful.

 

 

However . . . . . the Super Hornet has a pretty bad rep for pure performance, for a variety of reasons. It's been tagged a triumph of engineering over design . . . . .

 

They basically enlarged the Hornet on the photocopier.

 

As we know, there is a law of diminishing returns . . . . . they ended up with something that was draggy, drank lots, didn't actually carry that much . . . . etcetera, etcetera.

At that stage, it was only a little disappointing - could live with the embarassment.

 

However . . . . they then went to flight test and discovered it span like a bastrad. Boeing then decided (engineering over design, remember) to add a number of on-the-fly-bodge-jobs-err-hotfixes-err-minor-engineering-adjustments including (ouch) canting the wing pylons. More drag. Really quite a lot more drag. No . . . . . . . loads more drag.

 

In pure performance terms, compared to the Tomcat that it "replaces", the Super Airbrake is a dog. The combat radius is comparatively tiny, it NEEDS tanks to go ANYWHERE, it can't accelerate supersonic to fire missiles with anything even remotely combat-useful on the pylons . . . . . so you see why we don't like it.

 

 

 

The problem is that you have to make a case for this not being a problem. Not only because so much money was spent on the thing (shhhhh . . . . ), but because in the modern world, pure performance doesn't necessarily matter.

 

It doesn't matter if your opponent is flying something hugely fast and carrying loads of ordnance if you can sneak up on him and lay the smackdown on him first. Sure, in the classic fight he has an advantage . . . . . but first look, first kill really does work. LPI radar, AMRAAM, low RCS . . . . . you've won.

Maintaining the jet (and increasingly the cost of it) really, really matters, too.

 

Shrug.

[Cobra360]

The part I really like about the Superbug is that it is also used as a tanker. I bet it bearly gets off the deck with 4 tanks and a buddly pack. A fighter starved of fuel and drinks like a alcoholic is tasked to refuel the same draggy, fuel starved airframe as itself.