Air-To-Surface Weapons (Missiles and Guided Bombs) General Discussion

[Jschmus]

Here comes another air-to-ground weapon I never heard of before.  From Designation Systems:

In the late 1960s, the Naval Weapons Center (NWC) at China Lake developed a derivative of the AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile for air-to-ground use. An unknown number of AIM-9B missiles were converted by General Electric and designated AGM-87A Focus I. The AGM-87A was used in Vietnam during 1969/70 for night attacks against visible IR emitters, such as truck headlights. It is said that the Focus was quite successful in its specialized role, but the program was discontinued for reasons unknown to me.

Now I have a use for all those B-model Sidewinders that seem to be in every kit, whether they're anachronistic or not.

[elmayerle]

Here comes another air-to-ground weapon I never heard of before.  From Designation Systems:

In the late 1960s, the Naval Weapons Center (NWC) at China Lake developed a derivative of the AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile for air-to-ground use. An unknown number of AIM-9B missiles were converted by General Electric and designated AGM-87A Focus I. The AGM-87A was used in Vietnam during 1969/70 for night attacks against visible IR emitters, such as truck headlights. It is said that the Focus was quite successful in its specialized role, but the program was discontinued for reasons unknown to me.

Now I have a use for all those B-model Sidewinders that seem to be in every kit, whether they're anachronistic or not.

You may have to tweak the missile noses a bit, but they can also be used to model AGM-122 Sidearm light ARM conversions of AIM-9C missiles.

[kitnut617]

There is this one, I read somewhere that the WAH-64's are armed sometimes with these:


AGM-122A SIDEARM





***fixed link so it show the image instead of the URL***

[Jschmus]

I apologize for resurrecting yet another old thread, but I couldn't see starting another whole topic for one little question.  What are these?



The image in question was cropped from a photo of an in-service F/A-18C in flight refueling over Afghanistan.  I'm asking about the little things on the TER mounted under the left wing.  Are those Small Diameter Bombs, or some other weapon I haven't heard of yet?

[ChernayaAkula]

They're not SDBs, but rather look like PAVEWAY TRAINING ROUNDS. But what would those do on a combat sortie?  Although, dropped from high altitude they might punch a nice clean hole in a pick-up or something like that with little collateral damage. 

[PR19_Kit]

Although, dropped from high altitude they might punch a nice clean hole in a pick-up or something like that with little collateral damage. 

But they'd be very accurate holes.............. 

[Mossie]

Accurate enough to take out a sniper in a built up area maybe....

[Just call me Ray]

I recall seeing on an episode of History Channel's "Modern Marvels" (specifically about smart munitions) that they've been using precision practice rounds in combat as kinetic kill weapons to minimize collateral damage.

[Jschmus]

Alas, I was mistaken.  I found the original photo on a.net, and the caption reads "Refueling a F/A-18c in the MOAs east of Fallon NAS."  So, they are Paveway Training Rounds.  Which is what I wanted to know, anyway.  Thanks, guys.

Much later, I looked up Paveway on the internets, and found the following image on Wikipedia:



Per the caption, the top object is a Paveway II computer control group, the second is an Enhanced Paveway II, and the last is a Paveway Training Round.

[pyro-manic]

That's the one I'd seen, yes.

Thanks for the info. I'm looking at arming my Sandfly Mosquito with fire bombs, and I have a pair of Hurricane drop tanks handy. Sounds like they'll be passable.

[Jschmus]

It occurs to me I might be posting this in the wrong thread, but I'm not sure what I'm looking at.  I visit airliners.net daily, hunting for new desktop photos and the occasional reference material.  A photo was posted last week of an Mi-26 flanked by two Ka-52 gunships.  The both of the Kamovs are toting an asymmetrical loadout, with six ATGMs under the right wing and a large rectangular pod under the left.  The ATGMs are either the older "Ataka" or the newer "Vikhr" type, but I don't recognize the pod.  Any clues?

[Shasper]

The ATGMs are the newer Vikhr types . . . the pod is either some sort of test electronics rig, rocket pod or a luggage tote?


Shas

[ChernayaAkula]

It's some telemetry pod, IIRC, containing testing equipment. There was a pic in a book on the Ka-50, but I can't find it right now.

The ATGMS are the AT-9 Ataka-V. The sextuple launcher is rather interesting in itself. The Vikhr is carried on a different launcher.

Here's another pic:

AT-9 Ataka-V (on "Yellow 061" as in the pic above )
V


AT-16 Vikhr
V


More pics HERE on pilot.strizhi. Beside Ka-52 pics, there's also a host of interestingh Mi-28N pics.

[Just call me Ray]

I wonder if you could tie, say, three torpedoes to a set of wings and a pulsejet, fling it at an enemy ship and set it to release the torpedoes once it got to a certain speed or altitude?

[pyro-manic]

Well, the Ikara and ASROC anti-submarine weapons are basically similar - a missile which drops a torpedo. I've always thought that such a combination of a sea-skimming missile and torpedo would be a neat way of defeating an Aegis-type missile defence system.