In-flight rearming!

[Cobra360]

We all know about in-flight refueling, now the USAF is talking of in-flight rearming! Check the link below from Newscientist on the limited concept of it's details.

 

http://www.newscientist.com/blog/invention/

[SuperKungFu]

lol now that's going to be hard. Some pilots have a hard to refueling in mid arm now they want to add weapons?! lol, one small mistake a warhead would be up your a$$. But interesting idea though, thanks for sharing.

[Kenan]

Now all we need for them is to invent respawning. Imagine how kewl that would be.

[ivan_v4]

why not in flight windshield cleaning?? :P

[Starlight]

It's a quite old idea. There was in the 50s the concept of the aircraft carrier, in the sense of a large aircraft carrying many fighters, which would have acted as "mother ship" (like in "star wars").

 

I don't see the "in flight arming" very feasible, since even on the ground arming is done by men and usually takes quite some time. If technology has been left out of the arming area in the airfields, there should be some reason.

Getting it done in the air by some automated system would mean a really huge tech leap compared to what is being used today.

[Starlight]

BTW, longer missions due to refuel/rearm, would obviously need flying toilets and fast foods... :)

[SuperKungFu]

lol so we’re going to have large McDonald or burger king refueling aircraft waiting to take pilot’s order.

[Crusty]

always plenty of laffs to be had at the patents archive

[Stealth_HR]

As far as memory serves, there was an idea of creating a "skyhook" that'd enable the fleet to catch, rearm, refuel and relaunch a Harrier. Unfortunately, the project didn't go through.

[Cobra360]

Anyone play the PS1 game called Soviet Strike by EA. In it you fly an AH-64, when you need to re-arm, you hover over an ammo crate that has the Hellfire and Hydra rockets in the right spacing to fit in the pylons. A winch came down, picks up the crate and everything clipped into place on the pylons and the case just fell away. It was cool to watch even though not at all real.

 

For this concept to work in real life, all the pylons on fighter would need to be re-designed and re-fitted, a big job. Also all weapon mountings and lugs would need work aswell. Very costly.

[Bublik]

The question is when we're going to see the in-flight rearming feature in Lock On? :D

[AJ.eightFive]

... and whether it will be worth your time rearming your AIM-120's or just bringing along some big rocks instead.

[Maverick-90]

well i'd just say... Bravo-Uniform-Lima-Lima-Sierra-Hotel-India-Tango :D

[Camoman]

You fly inverted under the mother plane which sends out a few prong like things from the massive hole in its belly which secure your plane so it wont move. once this is done all it does is drop the weapons into place and then drop you away..you may aswell add a refueling port to the underside of the jet so you can get some gas whilst ur at it..and your all juiced up and ready to go.

[AJ.eightFive]

uh, inverted makes me sick, how about the rearming aircraft flies inverted instead...

[BladeLWS]

How about neither flies inverted and the weapons are held in a bay on top of the delivery aircraft. The receiver flies over, autopilots in the two aircraft sync, and the computers do the rest. In this day of age it's quite possible with the technology we have, practical, I don't know. Rearming UCAV's in midair would be practical.

[Xealot]

uh, inverted makes me sick, how about the rearming aircraft flies inverted instead...

 

You'll have to make in-air negotiations! So remember to save one missile for when you think its time to rearm :thumbup:

[Force_Feedback]

Why not make pods that hold the weapons in them (like 4x Aim-120+2x aim-9 for AA) or some bombs plus two aim-9s for A-G and so on. And when the fighter comes near the weapon tanker, the pod is carried on a wing-equipped platform that carries the weight of the weapon pod.

After the empty pod has been removed, a new on is clicked in place from under the jet, while the plane itself is flown by computer (after 5 fatal crashes the system will work perfectly), the the pod is "clicked" into place (while the computer compentates for the added weight.

 

You can do all this, or let deplomacy be your mean of spreading your beliefs, not JDAMs.

[Camoman]

Yeah I was also thinkin a hole in the top would be better but i wanted to make it more interesting so inverted sounded like fun unless of course it makes you sick..personally spins make me chuck but whadeva rocks ya boat.

 

Really though I do see it as feasible in this day n age.

[Camoman]

Also imagine comin back from a sortie and tellin ya fly boys on rest up dat u dropped 30 jdams form ur frontline attack aircraft. It would sure put those bomber boys back in their seat

[Dudikoff]

I could envisage a system for rearming a weapons bay like in F-22. It would need some sort of extension system (like on F-117) which would extend a hook and lock up a rack already having missiles on it (e.g. like Raptor already has for AMRAAMs). After confirmed locking up, it would just pull the rack inside. Rearming the short missiles would also require some sort of grapping hooks which would grasp the Sidewinders and release them on firing.

 

Rearming the standard pylons on fighter planes seems a bit harder unless they also employ some sorts of grapping hooks.