Forum: F-35 Armament, Stores and Tactics

I was just wondering how the F/A-22 and the F-35 are able to acquire a target using their heat seekers while the "stinger" is in hiding in the cargo hole?

If I were to guess it would be by using a heat seeking sensor on the plane which relays the image to the missile, just like remote desktop connection works for a PC. Anybody have any unclassified info or better educated guess on this?

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The Raptor's side bays open up and cant the Sidewinder outwards, the seeker head is able to aquire the target normally.

The F-35's weapon bays hold AMRAAM's don't they, so that's a moot point there, as they just drop out or are ejected prior to motor ignition, guidance strapdown already loaded.

I can imagine that the AIM-9 seeker head may easily be blocked by the airframe, as I can't imagine that it sticks it that far out from its pocket.

I did see a couple of web pages say that the F-35 will carry AIM-9X only on external hardpoints, so that removes that issue. Being much smaller than the AIM-120 I would have thought that they would have wanted to add a couple internally as well, but there you go...

Can the F-35 carry anything else internally if it has a pair of AIM-120's in the locker?

Some of those problems could be solved by the new high off bore-sight helmet ( JHMCS ) system also. I am sure they will think of something.

elp, I can see that the JHMCS will help, but doesn't the the seeker head need to be locked in before l firing? I may be wrong, but my understanding of the JHMCS is that it helps point the missile seeker head and/or the radar/radar beem in the right direction to find the target.

I don't know exactly. not being a weaponeer. You have to give some creative thought to the idea when you see those AIM-9X high-off-boresight test shots on video. The missile when it was hanging on the rack didn't see those targets while hanging on the rack either. It launched and based on prelauch info from the JHMCS: it made a hard turn to X=---- Y= ---- Z=----- , and when the missile gets on that heading it aquires ( any ? ) target that is in it's field of view. So IMO, An AIM-9X shot being ejected out of a weapons bay doesn't have to see the target before launch as long as it has the full, complete AIM-9x, JHMCS, setup in place. Thats my non-engineering, non-first person opinion. I could walk over and ask an engineer on the sustainment side here, but that wouldn't be fair. Very Happy

Any idea why the JSF does not have wingtip mounted rails for the AIM-9? The drawings I saw showed them mounted under the outside part of the wings.

Last edited by goatmilk on Mar 08, 2005 - 07:08 PM; edited 1 time in total

My guess is so it won't break up the "stealthy" lines of the jet. Underwing pylons could be easily removed without altering the wing shape or design. That, and it already has the internal bays to carry air-to-air missiles which would be the standard type mounted on wingtip rails. I'm not an engineer though, so that's just my guess as to why they wouldn't put wingtip rails. Smile

Hi all,

A picture I saw shows wing-tip ARLs for the CTOL and STOVL versions. Only the Carrier Variant had under-wing ARLs perhaps due to the wing-tips folding?

Ciao,
Smithsguy

DOH!

Well, there goes my theory... Mr. Green

I guess I should have looked at the drawing more carefully:

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/archives ... index.html

but it sorta conflicts with this one:

http://content.miw.com.sg/LifeStyle/Mil ... 040802.asp

Atlau,

Good point. On 2nd thought, as well, I think the CTOL/STOVL Advanced Rail Launcher (ARL) may be mounted under-wing, not wingtip, Though from seeing orientations of components in the ARL at stations 1 and 11 (the outer ones in the first pix), the ARLs may be mounted on an angle - not hanging straight down...

Ciao,
Smithsguy

um read up on how they did this in the OLD days!!! AKA F-106/ F-102/ F-101..... IRST BABY!!!

Dust off your 'Scope Wizard' and "Medicine Man' patches... it's the F-35 Voodoo II...

...or maybe not...

Mike

The racks extend when the bay is opened, when employing WVR weapons the RCS is not a issue. Slammers are asleep until the pickle is depressed then they wake up get the info and shoot. On a Viper it takes a bit of time for one to come off the rail.

Forum: F-35 Armament, Stores and Tactics

F-22/F-35 AIM-9 target acquisition from the cargo bay