Dropping droptanks - Peace vs Combat

Hello!

This is a question I thought about a few times when watching yt videos...

In peacetime, training, ferry and so on I dont think droptanks are actually dropped? Because it would be wasteful and dangerous for people on the ground, I think.

Anyone knows how this is regulated on a real mission, or if this is also part of the training? I mean also on mission it could hurt innocent people on ground.

Thank you

This was discussed before, and I believe the actual pilots said its very rare to drop tanks in both peace and wartime.

It was only done in emergency situations.

Only in emergencies. Bird strikes, flameouts, aircraft damage, etc. Tanks aren't cheap, and they don't come in unlimited quantities. I recall recently an F-16 out of Misawa had an emergency shortly after takeoff and had to punch his bags off over a lake. Really pissed off the locals with the fuel contamination (or risk of).

Back in WW2 external fuel tanks were made on the cheap and in large numbers so they were disposable. Not so anymore.

This was discussed before, and I believe the actual pilots said its very rare to drop tanks in both peace and wartime.

It was only done in emergency situations.

Only in emergencies. Bird strikes, flameouts, aircraft damage, etc. Tanks aren't cheap, and they don't come in unlimited quantities. I recall recently an F-16 out of Misawa had an emergency shortly after takeoff and had to punch his bags off over a lake. Really pissed off the locals with the fuel contamination (or risk of).

 

Back in WW2 external fuel tanks were made on the cheap and in large numbers so they were disposable. Not so anymore.

I thought they are dropped at least on mission. Thank you guys!

@ Nealius, subbed to your YouTube channel after watching the f18 Video, very nice work.

I thought they are dropped at least on mission.

Emergencies only AFAIK.

Here you can see what appears to be aircraft 90-0778 after the first USAF AIM-120 kill. If it is actually that video, you can see pilot return to base with both external wing tanks even after air combat. See video at around 3:50 ( video is set to time just hit play) Obviously this is a low quality video and it is almost impossible to verify it's validity.

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SU-25 landed with tanks even after getting damage

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same , but slight better quality

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@mvsgas

Very interesting, I've wondered about this, too. Good to know )

I think it would be more correct to say that they are dropped when there is a need to drop them, emergency or no. E.g. the Israeli F-16s during operation Babylon.

Also I guess pilots may choose to keep them even in an emergency if they can't be dropped safely.

It was only done in emergency situations.

Not only emergency. I've heard a few of them say they would punch them off in case they're about to get attacked in some way.

I don't know the real life procedures, but if DCS is anything to go buy, keeping the tanks on during combat seems pretty plausible. Most of the performance hit comes from weight when the tanks are full. By the time you get to your destination, the tanks should be dry and not all that much of a performance impact.

There are also always RoE playing with it. If you drop them just because you think you need and you hit someone on the ground you will have to have a very good reason why you just killed 5 civilians on the ground just because you filled your shorts… ;)

Next point is also that those parts are not available unlimited. RL is not a game where blue side always has as much stuff as they need. ;)

Third point.. every time you drop something like a fuel tank there is a risk of damaging your aircraft. You won`t damage anything just because it is fun.

Fouth point, I do not know about other jets, just knowing the F-16 a litte bit better. If you have an emergency landing without a landing gear, you can use the drop tanks as an additional glidepart for your jet without damaging your wingtips. This may give you the option not to eject. Don´t know how often it is used, but I know 1 case in the Netherlands where the pilot had those 2 options. If he would have dropped the tanks he would be forced to jump off the jet. With the tanks on board he was allowed to land without a landing gear and he could leave the aircraft safe.

Fith point, I do not really know how actual those numbers are because they are from and report of the DoD from 2002. There was an 370gal drop tank for F-16C/D listed with a price of 110.000$ including all needed parts. Not just the shell, also pumps and so on...

I think it would be more correct to say that they are dropped when there is a need to drop them, emergency or no. E.g. the Israeli F-16s during operation Babylon.

 

Also I guess pilots may choose to keep them even in an emergency if they can't be dropped safely.

Israeli ops are a bit unique since they typically fly low level over vast expanses of desert where dropped tanks are unlikely to hit anything or anyone.

The tanks are dropped only in emergency.

A Mirage 2000D had to drop its 2000L wings tanks to evade SAM during operations over Bosnia.

The other problem with dropping the tank is that in current operation the fighters are operating far from their air bases and do a lot of air refueling.

For fighters like F-16 or Mirage 2000 at least you can bet they go to the tanker when their external tanks are empty.

Without the tanks, this is less fuel you can take from the tanker. So keep it as long as you can.