Fighter Jet News

F-16 Fighting Falcon News

New weapon rack doubles F-16's smart weapon capacity

April 29, 2004 (by Lieven Dewitte) - The "smart weapon" capacity of the Lockheed Martin F16 has been doubled with the certification of the new BRU-57 multiple weapon rack. The BRU-57 has two stations, each with MIL-STD-1760 interfaces for smart weapons so flight and targeting data can be transferred to the weapon immediately prior to release.
The F-16 now will be able to carry four, instead of two, 1,000-pound class smart weapons.

"Doubling the payload of smart weapons should equate to doubling the expected targets destroyed per sortie," said John L. Bean, vice president of F-16 programs. "We expect the F-16 will continue to set the pace in integration of the latest advanced weapons."

The U.S. Air Force recently certified use of the Lockheed Martin CBU- 103/104/105/107 Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser series using the BRU-57 on its fleet of Block 40/42/50/52 F-16 aircraft. Certification of the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) is expected to be completed late this year. The rack is also compatible with 500-pound and 1,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM). All these weapons are integrated with only a software change to the F-16.

The BRU-57 is a vertical ejection rack using the latest technology. Compared to the previously used TER-3 triple ejector rack, it has advantages of interfacing with smart weapons, higher reliability and maintainability, and greater safety with lower potential for collision of weapons during release.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon will be the first aircraft to use the BRU-57. The BRU-57 contains two BRU-46 ejector units already used in the U.S. Air Force inventory.

The BRU-57 is currently in production for the U.S. Air Force and is manufactured by EDO Corporation's Marine and Aircraft Systems Division in N. Amityville, NY.