Forum: F-16 Armament & Stores

Hi guys, I'm currently building a 1:72 Belgian F-16 and wish to equip it with several training rounds, but I need some clarification. As far as I understand, any Sidewinder that has blue stripes or is totally colored in blue is a training round, right? What then, is this missile carried at the right wingtip? Is there a specific designation for it?

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Last edited by Iron_Eagle on Feb 03, 2004 - 10:15 PM; edited 1 time in total

And also, I noticed many AIM-9 "lookalikes" do not have the little fins on the end tails of the missile, is is because this is another training round?

That indeed is an AIM-9 training round on the wingtip, it just doesn't have any fins. The front part of the missile is just a dead weight plug inserted to mathc the weight of the seeker head/fin unit. The blue bands denote that part of the missle that is inert.

It's usually three parts: seeker-warhead-propellant. Each section has a stripe. If all three stripes are blue, or the whole missile is blue, then each part is inert. If the frontmost stripe is yellow, and the next two brown that means it's a live round. Yellow stripe for live electronics, and the two browns for live combustibles-warhead and propellant. Some rounds are yellow-blue-blue, meaning they have an active seeker head for tone, but they cannot be launched.

The skinny AIM-9-like pod you see carried are the ACMI pods used for tracking aircraft performance data, and to scoe 'hits' on ordnance being 'fired'.

Thanks a lot H, that was very helpful. What then, does a red stripe on a missile represent?
And also, sorry that I wasn't too clear on that last post. I knew about the ACMI pod, but was actually asking about the differences of these missiles in the picture. They both look like AIM-9Ms to me, but what is the difference? I noticed the plain ones are often carried by USAF, in particular F-16s, whereas I've never seen one on a NAVY jet.

Those things you have circle are the 'anti-roll' tabs that stabilize the missile in flight. They have chined rollers that stick out into the slipstream and when they reach a certain speed, they unlock, and the tab can swing up and down to stabilize the missile. Think of them as mini ailerons....or minirons Wink

And when you think you're seeing red stripes, you're not. They are in fact brown, but can look dark red in some instances.

As to why the Navy does it one way and the AF the other....that could start a whole new forum. The short answer is the Navy does it that way because they can. But keep looking, you'll find pics of Navy birds carrying inert ordnance.

Gotya! Speaking of expertise, man H! Wink

It wasn't too clear on the last small photograph, but on this one, the absence of the "anti-roll" tabs is evident. I guess the sole reason of this absence would be the blue stripe, i.e. training round?

Yup training round. But the blue stripe doesn't denote that. The blue striping doesn't affect the fin config. Some have full fins, some don't. The reasons some do and don't are as varied as the amount of AIM-9 types. Somtimes that's tall the weapons shop has on hand, it's lighter, easier to install...etc...etc..

Amazing, there's a whole science behind the color codes of the AIM-9 Sidewinder! Shocked

Hmm... maybe I should do my Ph.D on that topic? Just curious Habu, are you an active member of the USAF?

Huh? Me? Nah, I wish.....I'm a jack-of-all-trades so to speak. There are a few guys on this board that know a LOT more than I do about certain areas here and there. I'm a historian though, and this is the kind of stuff you learn along the way. I am a pilot however, just not in the AF. I'm also an incurable, avid modeler....you learn all kinds of stuff doing research for models.

Habu wrote:

...you learn all kinds of stuff doing research for models.

How true... how true... Well thanks again for all of your help!

Tracking AIM-9 types could drive you batty. Some are older rear ends with newer front ends etc. Depends on the contract ( of which there have been many ) , the vendor, and the buyer and what the buyer currently has,( will the order be a new buy or refirb? ) and the shelf life of what that existing customer currently has. The professional weight lifters that put these on the planes could explain in better detail.

Also...slightly O.T. might not apply to the AIM-9? But the USN has different weapons storage requirements, based on past experience with ship fires. Some weapons types have a special process applied to them when they are ordered for the USN.

The "anti-roll" tabs are called Rollerons. You will them on a missile configured as a live, or full DATM DUMMY AIR TRAINING MISSILE . A Dummy has all the "items" of a live, except it is non-explosive, just looks like the real thing. A CATM CAPTIVE AIR TRAINING MISSILE or CAP-9s, as they are normally called is what the one in the above photo that clearly shows the training MBA, Missile Body Assembly (no rollerons). The MBA is there to simulate the size, and weight, of a "real" missile. A CAP-9 is the MBA with a "good" GCS used for air to air combat training.

Thanks all for those informations!

Here is a "close up" of the rollerons. You can see the latch that releases due to the acceleration at launch.

Thanks for that closeup, Loader. So this would be the most common AIM-9M. Are AIM-9P and AIM-9J still used (often) in today's USAF, especially on F-16s?

Forum: F-16 Armament & Stores

AIM-9 Sidewinder training rounds