Forum: F-16 Armament & Stores

Last edited by RyanCollins on Jun 27, 2012 - 07:25 AM; edited 1 time in total

Hi guys!

Below is a picture of a Chilean F-16D Block 50, probably taken in "Los Cóndores" Air Base. As you can see, it has 2 x AIM-120 on wingtips, 1 x AIM-9M (right wing), 1 x ¿Dummy Sidewinder? (left wing) and 2 x LGBs (stations 3 & 7), besides the 2 fuel tanks.

My question is, are those inert missiles and bombs, or we're seeing the first photography of a Chilean Viper with live ammo? I think those are inert weapons, but considering the angle of the photo, I can't affirm that.

Thanks in advance!

Regards

PS: Don't ask about Pluto... Razz

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Kinda tough to tell for sure about the missiles. Can't see the telltale stripes. The bombs look like live ones tho, unless the Chileans have a different color code than USAF. All the USAF inerts I've ever seen had blue casings.

First of all, thanks for your reply.

I've found this picture of a Chilean Viper Block 50 with a Paveway bomb, from FIDAE 2006.

My guess, those are inert bombs & missiles. Anyway, I found weird that the dummy missile (I've read in some local forums that it's a Python IV dummy) is the only one that have the "Remove before flight"

If some of you are wondering why I've come here with this question is because, in various latin-american forums, there are a lot of discussions about the existence of live AIM-120 AMRAAM in Chile.

Some people don't believe in DSCA's papers and other stuff that demonstrates the existence of those missiles in Chile, and the only way to shut them up is to find a Chilean Viper with live AMRAAMs on board. Unfortunately, the Chilean Air Force (FACh) is very reluctant to display them, and the FACh only showed inert AMRAAMs on their Vipers.

Regards.

Those GBU's look pretty real to me. As stated earlier thy lack the blue color.

I agree those GBU's look real. I have another questions Which version of APG-68 does these F-16's use?

As far as I know they operate the APG-68V5 but Im not [Link pending approval]

big wrote:

I have another questions Which version of APG-68 does these F-16's use?

As far as I know they operate the APG-68V5 but Im not sure..

I've read the same, some sources indicates that Chilean Vipers use the AN/APG-68(V)5, but according to the DSCA document (here), they use the APG-68(V)XM, now known as the AN/APG-68(V)9.

Regards.

Now it's clear thanks for supporting.

I would say - theese weapons are not clearly marked as dummys. As crewcheif, i would tread them as 'hot' until othervice stated Wink

You canot use the 'remove before flight' flag as an indicator of weapon status. In this case, the safety flag / pin just secures the hooks in the MAU 12 rack. It will be there reguadles of weapond mounted on the rack / pylon

im gonna say that second picture in an inert bomb. if you look closely on the CCG the battery fire device is not at the 12 o'clock position. and there is no arming lanyard going to the CCG. so if this did drop there would be no guidance and it would end up blowing up a school.

this is a static display done incorrectly. and i would hope they would not use live muns for this.

Forum: F-16 Armament & Stores

Question about this Chilean Viper...