Forum: F-16 Armament & Stores

I know they're capable of carrying HARMs, but are they capable of carrying the HTS pod to go along with it?

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skwabie,

No, the AN/ASQ-213 HTS is used by the Block-50/52s and after the CCIP upgrade also the Block-40/42s. With the CCIP upgrade on those mentioned Blocks, the HTS pod has been moved from sta. 5R to sta. 5L on the side of the inlet.

Greetings,

Henrik.

I have seen blk 30s ( 523rd FS 30s in particular) carry harms however. They didn't utilize HTS pods so I don't know how they would work. They were filling in for one of the Misawa units at the time.

Hello TimmyMan,

You are correct - the 522nd FS and 523rd FS flew SEAD with their Block-30s up until 2002/03 without the HTS system. At the time they relayed on external assets such as AWACS and J-STARS.

Greetings,

Henrik.

Henrik wrote:

skwabie,

No, the AN/ASQ-213 HTS is used by the Block-50/52s and after the CCIP upgrade also the Block-40/42s. With the CCIP upgrade on those mentioned Blocks, the HTS pod has been moved from sta. 5R to sta. 5L on the side of the inlet.

Greetings,

Henrik.

Despite the CCIP upgrade on Block 40/42s- the SEAD mission will stay with the Block 50/52s squadrons.

Can the 30/32s carry HTS pods? Certainly--they fit on the same hardpoints as the Litening pods.
Will the HTS pods work on a 30/32? Not likely. When I retired, they wouldn't work. I'd be surprised if they'd work today; however, the USAF is not keeping me posted on what mods the "pre-blocks" have had since 2005.

SixerViper wrote:

Can the 30/32s carry HTS pods? Certainly.....

Thanks for Your information, Sixer!!

I guess it is very much like when the USAF had a Ramstein based Block-30 showing the LANTIRN system at the Paris Air Salon back in the 1980s - carrying the system is no problem - using it is another story.

Greetings,

Henrik.

Henrik wrote:

skwabie,

No, the AN/ASQ-213 HTS is used by the Block-50/52s and after the CCIP upgrade also the Block-40/42s. With the CCIP upgrade on those mentioned Blocks, the HTS pod has been moved from sta. 5R to sta. 5L on the side of the inlet.

Greetings,

Henrik.

Hey thanks for the replies guys.
I guess you can put anything on an F-16 but if it don't work it's useless right?

And it's nice that they moved the HTS pod. With the datalink and stuff I guess the info can be shared among all the onboard sensors. So if the HTS spots a Fan Song radar, it can pass the pos data to the Sniper, and the pilot can put an LGB on it... or HARM the radar and LGB the missile launchers. Very neat!

Actually Blk 30/32's don't recognize a HARM in the weapon inventory so you load them up like an AGM-65.

Cheers,

ViperDude

Siesta wrote:

Henrik wrote:

skwabie,

No, the AN/ASQ-213 HTS is used by the Block-50/52s and after the CCIP upgrade also the Block-40/42s. With the CCIP upgrade on those mentioned Blocks, the HTS pod has been moved from sta. 5R to sta. 5L on the side of the inlet.

Greetings,

Henrik.

Despite the CCIP upgrade on Block 40/42s- the SEAD mission will stay with the Block 50/52s squadrons.

I can't say I've heard of any 40/42s performing SEAD/DEAD missions but why wouldn't the AF take advantage of more WW capable acft? Kinda spreads the workload out although there isn't much of a demand for SEAD right now. Are there any blk 40 specific capabilities the blk 50s gained in CCIP? Should be really exciting now that the 50s can carry an HTS and targeting pod of there choice. If they can deal with the drag/weight.

I thought CCIP was supposed to make USAF Blocks 40/42/50/52 the same from an avionics POV.

Forum: F-16 Armament & Stores

Can Block30/32s carry HTS pod?