Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

I was watching FutureWeapons the other day on the Military Channel, and they showed this guided weapon test footage that I'd seen a few times before...it's a fairly well known piece of footage, and I believe it came from the JSOW test program.

The clip shows the weapon fly over the top of a pit, somewhere in the American Southwest. Down inside the open pit, is an aircraft, which at first glance, appears to be an A-5 Vigilante. As the bomb overflies the pit, the weapon destroys the aircraft.

Anyone know the footage I'm talking about? Am I right? Was it a JSOW destroying a Viggie?...or am I in need of an optometry appointment?

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That's actually a Tomahawk airburst mode test footage.

This YOUTUBE vid shows the test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFoh45ltfMw

btw, the SDB has an airburst mode also.

Forum Veteran Joined: Dec 15, 2006 - 12:28 AM Posts: 760

<<edited>>

Thanks for getting me up to speed on the footage guys. So, basically the Sierra Heads on Discovery used Tomahawk footage to describe a JSOW. Why am I not surprised?

Also, the plane is rather blurry, but I keep thinking that it's a Viggie. Am I at least right on that part?

I zoomed in on it and compared the pic to a couple of schematics--it has some similarities to a Viggie, but I think its nose is too stubby--it looks (at least to me) to be either a SEPECAT Jaguar or a Mirage F-1.

Well, it appears as though I've answered my own question. Here's the scoop if you read this article.

It's an interesting history of the A-5, up through the final disposition of these birds, including the one in the video.

http://www.wingweb.co.uk/aircraft/The_A-5_Vigilante.html

You guys know more about this stuff than I do. I was thinking that it may have been a captured Iraqi jet--but after I read your post, TC, I remembered they'd all probably been bombed or ran to Iran. Next time I'll pipe down and let the professionals duke it out.

It just seemed too small to be an A-5, but then again, what do I know, I've only seen one, ever in person. Shrug

For domestic weapons testing, we typically use retired US airframes. We have a Boneyard full of airframes that we can and do use.

However, what the boys in Spooky land at Tonopah do or did, I have no idea. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Wink

BTW, the radome had been removed from the Viggie. That's why it looked a little small.

One of the other reasons why I had trouble determining the make of the aircraft at first, was because of what was left of the paint scheme. It definitely looked too dark to be Navy gray. At first glance, it actually looks more like SEA camo, but it isn't. It's just a paint job that got a good Arizona sun tan sitting in the Boneyard.

Thanks for the help on this one folks!

Forum: Military Aircraft of the Cold War

Weapon Test Footage