.

Peoples easily forget P 8 ..but not me

6 External Stations for AShM internal payload of Mines and Torpedoes

It’s something more for Both Anti Surface and Sub Merge Ops

for such big aircraft , it carry such a low number of anti ship missiles , only 4 harpoon

Only the MN uses the Exocet so far, AdlA Rafales don’t operate it, and MN carries only one for bring back capabilities, which is not an issue if you operate from land bases.

Nic

i know , but the Exocet wing seem really big for the Rafale to carry 4 of them on wing ( feel like they will touch the other )
btw wasnt the inner station of Rafale is wet station ( only for carry fuel ) and you cannot carry weapon on that ? ( same as F-16 you cannot carry AAM or AGM on inner station )

I think you could fit up to 3 Exocets from a Rafale, and why not 4 if you go with CFTs + a single 2000L ET, or even 5 if you dispense of the ETs completely. Not too shabby for a medium sized fighter.

Nic

I dont think rafale can carry that much Exocet missiles though ( never seen them actually fit more than 1 Exocet on rafale ) , the missiles wing seem too bif to fit more than 3 of them on rafale

the 2 inner station of rafale are very close

Apparently, the B-52 didn’t have the means to find naval targets on her own, until recently:
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/transforming-a-b-52-into-a-maritime-patrol-plane-1003488b345a
http://www.afrc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123415848

Since the Tu-22 is the only dedicated anti-shipping bomber, it’s probably the best.

but the Tu-22 and AS-4 probably the oldest combo here ( probably except the B-52 + harpoon )
AS-4 have the longest range of 600 km + highest speed of mach 5 + biggest warhead a shaped charge warhead weighing 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) was used in the missile, the resulting hole measured 5 m (16 ft) in diameter, and was 12 m (40 ft) deep , however it also very big ( almost the size of an F-16 ) thus have enormous RCS + it have very high infrared signature + it fly at very high altitude thus can be detected and intercept much earlier

It can be launched in either high-altitude or low-altitude mode. In high-altitude mode, it climbs to an altitude of 27,000 m (89,000 ft) and makes a high-speed dive into the target, with a terminal speed of about Mach 4.6. In low-altitude mode, it climbs to 12,000 m (39,000 ft) and makes a shallow dive at about Mach 3.5, making the final approach at an altitude under 500 m (1,600 ft). The missile is guided by a gyro-stabilized autopilot in conjunction with a radio altimeter.

Tu-22 also carry only 3 of them per aircraft

I’ll go for the 4 B52s launching 48 harpoons.

Nic

why not 4 su-33 with 12 Klub +8 Kh-31A? mach 3 missile are often very good at penetrate defence
or 4 F-35 with 96 SPEAR III, very high resistance to jamming + overwhelming number of low RCS missile are also good at penetrate defense
Rafale also seem good, mixing different kinds of weapon, making intercept task much harder