Air-Launched Weapons: Difference between revisions
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Things that can be launched from aircraft. Also includes equipment to make an aircraft more effective.
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They have been in use for decades, and some sources say the French experimented with them in World War I, but with mediocre results (it's a bit dangerous to launch a rocket that exhausts vast plumes of white-hot flames from an airplane built of wood and cloth) at the time.
The first practical use was by USSR against Japan in 1939. While Soviet "rocket shells" are far more famous for their Free Rockets Over Ground use, compatible launchers were installed on many planes. Those rockets weren't very accurate, had fragmentation warheads with timed fuses (the early versions of those were rather unreliable), and greater range than machineguns or aircraft cannons; as such, they were best used all at once at long range, and if possible, before the enemy regroups, immediately followed by a conventional dogfight. Rockets were not exceedingly effective in this role, but useful enough, and later launch systems were installed on variety of fighters as auxiliary weapons, as well as on ground assault planes. In 1940-s many other versions appeared.
As a curious note, Soviet aviation had love-hate relationship with turbojet rockets since 1940-s when they were modestly marked as "improved grouping" types, and until 1950-s: those were more accurate, yet more demanding to the launcher and upgrades are harder (therefore, slow and rare) - they spin and thus sensitive to full moment of inertia, and any change requires re-balancing the whole thing, while finned rockets allow to slap a new warhead on or screw a new fuse into it much easier.
The Japanese were impressed enough to try this too, and developed both surface-to-surface and air-to-air rockets by 1942-43 - but couldn't catch up to several decades of work in a few years, and their few experimental "aerial rocket bombs" with [https://forum.axishistory.com//viewtopic.php?f=65&t=96475#p1290612 phosphorous cluster warheads] were at best scary, yet ineffective (because they didn't inflict enough of damage), and at worst [http://www.j-aircraft.org/smf/index.php?topic=3477.0 barely noticed at all] (when the Japanese either had even worse timers or were unreasonably optimistic and tried to snipe bombers at extreme range, rather than catch them in a barrage as large as they could from as close as they could get without being hit).
Unguided rockets were much more common in World War II, and were a favored choice for ground-attack and close-support missions in the US and UK air arms, as an aircraft that might only be able to carry a single 500-pound bomb could have racks under the wings for six or eight rockets. Rockets also caused less danger to friendly troops on the ground as their warheads were relatively small and so had smaller bursting radii.
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* The late 1970s AIM-9J version of the Sidewinder, the first to feature sensor circuitry cooled with liquid nitrogen to improve its sensitivity and reliability
* The R-60/AA-8 "Aphid" from the USSR, found on aircraft like the
==== All-aspect ====
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==== Off-boresight ====
The problem with the older missiles is that you need to be pointing your nose at a reluctant target. With these, coupled with a [[Helmet
* This technology was developed by the US in the mid-1970s as a result of [[wikipedia:ACEVAL/AIMVAL|analysis of air combat in Vietnam, analysis of existing systems, and large-scale wargames]] and then abandoned for decades as it was felt to be too expensive to be practical, except for some [http://www.best-of-flightgear.dk/vtas.htm small-scale trial use by the US Navy in the late 1970s].
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=== Radar Guided Missiles ===
{{quote|
These missiles guide in on the radar reflections of a target and come in varying forms.
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=== Semi-active radar-homing ===
[[File:Missile homing.jpg|thumb|]]
These missiles home on a radar reflections from a target aircraft that is being "painted" with the radar system of the jet fighter that launched the missile (tactics were developed for one aircraft to illuminate the target while another fired the missile, but it is uncertain whether this was ever tried in actual combat, and this general category of guidance system is now obsolescent). This does of course require the firing aircraft to retain a lock on it, which is by no means easy if the target aircraft is maneuvering. This generation of radar-guided missiles was the first to have circuitry included that made them smart enough to home in on a radar jammer. These were introduced around 1960 and have been obsolescent since the advent of reliable active radar homing missiles in the mid-1980s.
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=== Active radar-homing ===
{{quote|
These missiles have their own radar seekers on board to carry out the final intercept, allowing them to be launched from long distances and left to do their job (leading to them being termed as "fire and forget" missiles). With some aircraft, one plane (or an AWACS) can light up the aircraft and guide missiles from multiple aircraft in before the missiles go active. This sort of guidance system is also very common on anti-ship missiles.
* The US AIM-54 "Phoenix," developed in the early 1970s, noteworthy for having an effective range well in excess of 100 nautical miles, possibly the longest-range air-to-air missile ever produced. It and the [[Cool Plane|F-14 "Tomcat"]] jet fighter that carried it were developed concurrently. As far as can be determined, it was never used in combat by the United States. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100323174414/http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_210.shtml This site] asserts that the Iranian Air Force scored several kills with the AIM-54 Phoenix during the Iran-Iraq war, including Mig-25s and one occasion where a [[Splash Damage|single missile destroyed three of four Mig-23BNs flying in close formation.]]
* [[wikipedia:AIM-120 AMRAAM|The US AIM-120 AMRAAM]], also called the "Slammer". It was developed in the late 1980s, and while it entered service just a touch too late to see action in Desert Storm, come Operation Southern Watch one year later it proved to be as lethal as the contractors had promised the AIM-7 Sparrow would be thirty years before. Current production version is the AIM-120C with an effective range of 30+ miles, and AIM-120D, with a 65+ mile effective range, is currently in the testing and evaluation stage of development. Smart, agile, and highly lethal, it appears to be everything they promised radar-guided air-to-air missiles would be back in the 1950s.
* Soviet AA-9 "Amos," similar in role to the AIM-54 Phoenix.
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=== Directed-energy weapons ===
[[file:Airbornelaserturret.jpg|thumb|upright|]]
While jetcraft have yet to be shooting each other out of the sky with [[Star Wars]]-type lasers/whatnot, [[wikipedia:Chemical oxygen iodine laser|this]] shows use on a large airborne craft (read: modified jumbo jet) for shooting down ballistic missiles on their way up, and in theory could work against an aircraft too by detonating its fuel and weapons load.
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=== Iron bombs ===
[[file:F-4E-81st-tfs.jpg|thumb]]
'Iron' means there's nothing really special about these. You release, the bomb falls, and (hopefully) it blows up what you aimed it at. The first ones of these, at least according to [[The Other Wiki]], was from unmanned balloons sent over Venice. Not many hit. Then again, this was ''1849''.
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=== [[wikipedia:Thermobaric weapon|Fuel-Air Explosive/Thermobaric bombs]] ===
[[File:Douglas A-1E Skyraider of the 1st SOS is armed with BLU-72 bomb, in 1968.jpg|thumb]]
These were first put into service around 1965, just in time for Vietnam. The FAE is deceptively simple. Imagine a half-ton canister of propane, liquified petroleum gas, or something similar. Imagine putting shackle points on it so that it can be slung on an attack aircraft's bomb rack. The canister will need to be modified, of course. Instead of detonating instantly when it gets to the ground, it has valves on it to release the contents and mix them with air in the appropriate proportions for rapid combustion, plus a time fuze to give the payload time to mix with air for a few seconds, plus a detonator or incendiary device of some kind to initiate the reaction, the reaction in this case being an enormous explosion that can kill everyone inside an underground tunnel complex beneath it by overpressure, or clear an instant helicopter landing field in triple-canopy jungle; they're also quite useful for clearing land mines. The designs have been refined over the years but the basic concept remains the same. Instead of a solid high explosive filling, they use a mixture of flammable vapor and air, or in some newer Russian designs, small particles of highly flammable solids in air, to create the big bang boom.
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A new wrinkle from the Yanks is ''satellite''-guided bombing, which comes in surprisingly inexpensive bolt-on kits for iron bombs. As long as they have the right target location (they can't follow a moving target, though), it gets hit. (Sadly, this is still subject to human error--the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was hit by one of these due to an out-of-date map. The bomb did its job, but garbage in, carnage out.) GPS guidance is slightly less accurate than laser guidance, but the tailkits are cheaper than laser-seekers and the plane does not need to keep a laser pointed at the target.
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Usually either a small [[Sea Mine]] or iron bomb in a better sealed casing (and with different fuses, etc), dropped with parachute - but not always.
These occupy a place somewhere between "iron bombs" and "smart bombs" in both technology and application. It is basically a bomb casing that is designed to split open fifty or a hundred meters in the air over the target and discharge hundreds or thousands of "submunitions," basically grenades. They are extremely useful against dug-in infantry, and, with slightly larger shaped-charge submunitions, can damage or destroy even armored vehicles in the target area, as a tank's armor is generally thinnest on the roof. This idea is also [[Older Than They Think]], having first been developed by the Soviets between the World Wars, copied by the Germans during the war, then developed further by all parties in the [[Cold War|postwar era]]. Politically controversial because they sometimes litter the area with duds, which later endanger civilians in the area. A notable example of its infamous-ness was the massive drama created when Carlos Cardoen, a Chilean entrepreneur owner of Cardoen Weapons, sold this type of weapons to Saddam Hussein, though he argued that the transaction was well known for the US and it was done before the second Gulf War.▼
Most major participants of WWII had at least one type of these.
UK had A Mark I to A Mark VII. USA had Mark 13 (without parachute, magnetic), Mark 15 (acoustic), Mark 19 (drifting, with relatively small charge), Mark 25 (magnetic, with acoustic variant) and Mark 25 (magnetic). USSR had AMG-1 (moored, modified common mine), Р-1 (moored ''river'' mine), MIRAB (ground, magnetic, small charge), AMD-1-500/AMD-1-1000 (ground, magnetic mines from 1942, number for half-ton or ton). Italy had Delta (ground, magnetic). Japan had Aircraft Type 3 Mark 2 Model 1 (horned, drifting). Germany had LMA (British designation "GD") to LMF (British designation "GP"). France had some prototypes, but nothing in service.
Later there, of course, was some development, though not always in the same direction. USA in [[Vietnam War]] had "Destructor mines" designated DST, which were converted common bombs (and still usable as iron bombs).
=== [[Recursive Ammo|Cluster munitions]] ===
[[File:Demonstration cluster bomb.jpg|thumb|A cutaway depicting interior.]]
▲These occupy a place somewhere between "iron bombs" and "smart bombs" in both technology and application. It is basically a bomb casing that is designed to split open fifty or a hundred meters in the air over the target and discharge hundreds or thousands of "submunitions," basically grenades. They are extremely useful against dug-in infantry, and, with slightly larger shaped-charge submunitions, can damage or destroy even armored vehicles in the target area, as a tank's armor is generally thinnest on the roof. Incendiary munitions usually work better this way too, since it's less about dumping more fuel on things that won't burn on their own and more about hitting something that will. This idea is also [[Older Than They Think]], having first been developed by the Soviets between the World Wars, copied by the Germans during the war, then developed further by all parties in the [[Cold War|postwar era]]. Politically controversial because they sometimes litter the area with duds, which later endanger civilians in the area. A notable example of its infamous-ness was the massive drama created when Carlos Cardoen, a Chilean entrepreneur owner of Cardoen Weapons, sold this type of weapons to Saddam Hussein, though he argued that the transaction was well known for the US and it was done before the second Gulf War.
Some types of cluster munition can be used to lay minefields from the air, using land mines that arm themselves shortly after reaching the ground.
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Commonly found mounted to helicopters or light attack aircraft, you just aim at the target and let off a salvo of explosive rockets. They are most often used to shoot up lightly armed ships and road convoys, as well as to give fire support for the infantry when carrying out an airmobile assault. Prior to smart bombs and air-to-ground guided missiles, they were once the weapon of choice for close support aircraft, as the larger rockets had a chance to at least damage even the largest, heaviest tanks. The Russians have always loved these, and bolt multiple huge cylindrical launch pods with dozens of these rockets onto helicopter gunships and close support aircraft. They are slightly less common in Western services than they once were, due to advances in guided missiles.
=== Guns ===▼
▲=== Guns ===
[[File:GAU-8 meets VW Type 1.jpg|thumb|The GAU-8 Gatling gun of an A-10. Car for scale.]]
Airplanes and helicopters can provide [[More Dakka|quite a lot of dakka]]. This can be a strafing run from a [[Peanuts|Sopwith Camel]]'s machineguns, up to the machinegun/cannon combo mounted on later Spitfires, then through the [[Gatling Good|30mm GAU-8 Avenger]] that the A-10 is built around. And then some--the AC-130 gunship ("don't think of it as an airplane, think of it as a [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|flying castle of doom]])" flown by the USAF currently mounts a 25mm Gatling cannon as its small gun. Also on board are a 40mm former ground-to-air cannon (now air-to-ground) and a 105mm ''howitzer'' plus extremely sophisticated sensors and fire control computers allowing it to find targets on the ground with great efficiency and engage them accurately.
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* F-117 Nighthawk. Called a stealth 'fighter', it's really just a ground attack aircraft. In service since the late 1970s, it started out as a top-secret black project initiated for the specific purpose of building stealthy military aircraft. It achieved that goal, and the plane would later be revealed to the public, and take part in the various wars of the 1990s and early 2000s with great success. However, one Nighthawk was nevertheless shot down during the Kosovo War, the circumstances of the event still remaining a topic for debate. Sadly retired in the late 2000s.
* B-2 Spirit. Called a stealth 'bomber', the Spirit really is a strategic heavy bomber, capable of striking anywhere in the world (with tanker support), passing through air defenses as if they were not there, and unleashing major destruction. The thing's cost is upwards of 2 billion US dollars apiece (literally, more than worth its weight in gold), and it's meant to really not look like any other bomber, whether you're looking at it with radar, infrared, or just your eyes. Visually, it appears to be a big black flying wing. On radar, it appears to not exist. Unless you're using the ADF rader that detects it via the disturbances it leaves in the air behind it. So far, it has lived up to its purported capabilities in all its deployments, and the only B-2 loss until now has been due to a peacetime crash.
* F-22 Raptor. This one's a real stealth fighter, although it's hard to say how good it is. There aren't <s> m</s>any that can match it yet, and the US is pretty reluctant to talk about how well it works too. Just check out its description [[
* F-35 Lightning II. If the F-22 is the [[Cool Plane]] equivalent to [[Elite Mooks]], then this is [[Goddamned Bats]] for enemy ground forces. Not as good a dogfighter as the F-22, the F-35's hat is ground attack similar to the F-117. It's real boons however are its VTOL capability, advanced ECM suite and comparatively lower cost when compared to the F-22: the US military ordered more than '''2400 planes'''. Unfortunately, the project is plagued with delays (introduction in 2016 at the earliest) and overspending (the current projected costs of the program are '''323 billion dollars''').
** Counted past 391 billion, but cancelled due to having [https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/03/gilmore_farewells_trump_government_slamming_the_f35_again/ far too many problems] apparently not solved quickly enough.
* Sukhoi PAK FA T-50. It is intended as Russia's answer to the F-22 but it's still in the early prototype stage. According to the designers, it's less stealthy than the F-22 but more nimble.
* Chengdu J-20, another prototype stealth fighter design but this one's from - surprise, surprise - ''China''. It's Chinese name fittingly translates as "[[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Annihilator Twenty]]".
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]
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