Elwood Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Hello, with the "delayed" Tomcat I took the chance to finally deep dive into this great virtual airframe, other then "civilian" flights. I'm quite good in that, all kind of landing/takeoff, air to air refuel, navigation and naval operations in night and day. So, starting to look into weapons and I found this picture and want your feedback. My understanding is that the external fuel tanks are needed to reduce the effect of an asymmetric loading when that GBU will be dropped. But... if that is the case, why not a central TPOD and 2 GBU? Is that maybe for the longest loitering time without in flight refuel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cunctator Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 Initially it wasn't possible to load the TPOD on the centerline station, only after some more upgrades. About 2010 was the date I've found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toilet2000 Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 The GBU-12 is not supposed to be dropped at all. When loading a TPOD on a wing station, a GBU-12 (which has a similar weight to the pod) has to be kept at all time on the other wing's corresponding station. The loadout on that photo is a pure FAC(A)/Designator loadout or an "expended" loadout after a sortie (if the Harrier is landing, which it does seem to be doing). TL;DR That GBU-12 should never be dropped. It has to stay there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vladinsky Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 TL;DR That GBU-12 should never be dropped. It has to stay there. Where does this idea come from? The TPOD is below the asymmetric limits of vertical take off, landing and shipboard STO on stations 3 and 5. Additionally it's also below the limits for STO/CTO on stations 2,3,5,6. The only case you could make for using a bomb as a counterweight would be for a shipboard STO on stations 2 and 6. The pictured configuration can take off and land anywhere unrestricted with or without the bomb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cunctator Posted December 17, 2018 Share Posted December 17, 2018 This is also directly contradicted by reports from Harrier pilots. In M. Franzak's book he explicitly describes multiple times how they dropped those bombs when flying with such loadouts in Afghanistan 2002/03. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elwood Posted December 18, 2018 Author Share Posted December 18, 2018 Initially it wasn't possible to load the TPOD on the centerline station, only after some more upgrades. About 2010 was the date I've found. Ah! This explain almost everything. About the loadout I'm quite sure I did see others. Like one TPOD internal and just once aim9 on the external stations. About drop or not drop that bomb it's clear that we have some discussion here.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elwood Posted December 18, 2018 Author Share Posted December 18, 2018 (edited) Some more configuration with no, internal and external fuel bags. Edited December 18, 2018 by Elwood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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