Now where is that Common Support plane?
Looks like the USN is stuck with short ranged fighters, no (real) tankers and no carrier borne ASW plane.

It was in the news about 6 months ago that Boing were going to take advantage of the delays in the F35 program to develop a further model of the F18 with the USN in mind, and I think it was going to have stealth features and maybe supercruise. I have not been able to see anything further on it though. It was to be in production in 2010, several years before the F35.

Hard to believe when a clean F-18E/F cannot even brake the sound barrier under 10000 feet. This would require a pair of F119 i guess. 😀

The camo looks nice, more air superiority like not the usual dark grey F-16 colors. 🙂

The configuration is possible until tests prove or disprove it :rolleyes:

I’d rather say its impossible until tests prove otherwise.

It has always been said that EF only has 3 heavy stations. All the pics shown so far prove this.

The heaviest load on the inner wing pylon seems to be 2 BL755 (2x 277kg) combined with a double ejector rack. Btw, a Paveway II is 520kg.

Oh, and theres a little mistake concerning the Precision Strike III loadout in the photo gallery: The plane in this case is loaded with 2 Paveway II and 2 Paveway III.

Storm Shadow’s on the inboard pylons might look a little strange but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Those inboard pylons will be able to handle the weight of a Storm Shadow (about 1300kg).

Thats what the official EF site says. I’ll believe it when i see it.

Internal fuel isn’t 5000 kg for a two seater. It’s more about 4300 kg. Don’t forget about fluids like oil and hydraulic etc..

True, i forgot about that. But it only widens the gap 😉

The Harrier for example carries less than 10l of oil. Thats neglible.

You’re using stupidly approximated figures. 100 kg for a fully dressed, fully-equipped pilot?

A standard UK 500-lb bomb weighs 540-lb. I seem to recall that a non LGB 1,000-lb bomb weighs close to 1,100-lb.

A full 1,000 litre tank AND pylon will weigh rather more than 1,000-kg

etc.

And I suspect that EF GmbH’s ’24 tonnes’ is equally approximate.

Moreover, this is an IPA, so as you surmise, will be weighed down with test instrumentation.

I dont know what would push the weight of a pilot much above 100kg…

The UK dumb bombs are 540lb or 1000lb according to the RAF site.

1000l fuel is about 800kg, the tank itself plus pylon should not weigh more than 200kg. As i said, the Tornados tank is 75 kg, thus leaving more than 125 kg for the pylon. That should be plenty.

How much of that 1300kg is explosives (and, for context, how much of a 2,000lb LGB is explosives)?

I think the Storm Shadow carries a 500kg warhead.
The LGB is heavier than 2000lb, because thats the weight of the bomb alone without guidance kit.

It is good that you number smatch up that good, but don’t wonder about the missing ton. It might be due to round-off in the report, additional weight not considered. For example: Do the LGB really weight 500kg exactly? Or is that just the weight of the bomb?

I see, but i tried to round up the figures. The bombs should be 1000lbs or 450kg without seeker etc.
The AAMs are likely to weigh less too and the fuel tanks empty weight is hardly 200kg (Tornados 1500l tank should be 75kg).

Note that this range is for only subsonic, optimum cruise speed. This mission could be flown by any aircraft. But if all externals are dropped, the Typhoon can be as agile as it used to be.

Sure. On another note: i think those 1000l tanks are too small. 1500 or even 2000l tanks are likely imho.

Something i just noted:

If the data in the report is correct, the above shown EF is about 24 tons.
Now, lets subtract the external load/fuel:
3 1000l tanks, 1000 kg each incl empty weight and pylon: 3000kg
4 500kg bombs: 2000kg
4 AMRAAMs: 800kg
2 IRIS-T: 200kg
internal fuel: 5000kg
crew: 200kg
Total: 11200kg

Now theres a difference of 12800kg.

Empty weight of the twin seater is said to be 11700kg.

Is it just test equipment or something else?

If cruising at optimum cruise speed at best altitude, being stingy with afterburner and throwing away the tanks when empty at least 650km. If low-level ingress is needed deduce 50%.

Is that range or radius? Because a radius of 300km wouldnt be that great.

btw, the pic posted by Matej shows the EF loaded with two Storm Shadows on the inner wing pylons. Now where is the in-flight pic? 😀
I guess we will never see that happening.