Forum: F-16 Spotting & Photography

So they had this loadout:

Fighter pilot, Capt. Brett "Zipper" Robinson, takes his F-16C (91-0401) on a sortie in support of operation 'Enduring Freedom' on December 4th, 2001. Note the odd configuration with a ASQ-213 HARM interface and JDAM's under the wings.

Obviously we can't see what's on station 7 store.

No "bird slicer"? Another thing, did they also operated LITENING pods during the operation?

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No Litening pods - the block 50/52's hadn't started using them yet at this time.

TwoBobs had once a great sheet covering this unit during early part of Enduring Freedom.
Basically they flew with a combination of either of the following;
CBU-103
GBU-31
AGM-88
AGM-65

And the first CCIP'd Block 52 didn't get delivered until 2002. Hence, no Bird Slicers.

First F-16 CCIP delivered (January 28, 2002)

The 389FS was in Enduring Freedom in December 2001, and I think they completed that deployment around 2. quarter of 2002. They then returned stateside and got the CCIP mod, beeing back in Enduring Freedom by 2003 with CCIP'ed Vipers.

Boman wrote:

No Litening pods - the block 50/52's hadn't started using them yet at this time.

TwoBobs had once a great sheet covering this unit during early part of Enduring Freedom.
Basically they flew with a combination of either of the following;
CBU-103
GBU-31
AGM-88
AGM-65

-they mainly performed AG or CAS missions during OEF? They carried that loadout with the HTS, is that pod can only be used with AGM-88s? So that might be an -88 on station 7. Even if they carry GBU-31 on both sta. 3 & 7, or combination of JDAM or -65s (i guess its a laser maverick?) or GBU-12 maybe, do they still carry the HTS pod?

snickerbar wrote:

-they mainly performed AG or CAS missions during OEF? They carried that loadout with the HTS, is that pod can only be used with AGM-88s? So that might be an -88 on station 7. Even if they carry GBU-31 on both sta. 3 & 7, or combination of JDAM or -65s (i guess its a laser maverick?) or GBU-12 maybe, do they still carry the HTS pod?

Well the bomb on station 7 in the original pic is most assuredly a JDAM of some kind and NOT a HARM. I'm no HTS expert so don't take my word for it but if the HTS can get a threat position fix to send to a HARM, it could also do the same for a JDAM. It may have to chew on the data to turn it into something the JDAM recognizes tho. Is that just a software patch? Dunno. Shrug

Prior to the CCIP mod (which, IIRC, added Litening/Sniper capability to Block 5X) that may have been one method for a Block 5X to send targeting info to a GBU. But that's just me speculating. CCIP'd Block 5Xs nowadays carry both the HTS and a Litening or Sniper pod.

Forum: F-16 Spotting & Photography

Take a look at this OEF loadout