Yeah. The FLIR wouldn’t be all that interesting but Litening, Brimstone, and ASRAAM would bring it higher than .4 above the Gr.1. The new cockpit would be nice for SIM.
Yep. Im really looking forward to the Gr4. but it would need more of its loadout options, like Brimstone for it to be a worthwhile addition. That would easily result in 12.7 ish and ASRAAM would then be its only hope for A2A gamemodes .
I wouldn’t mind if they added it with only AIM-9M and Litening soon. Though 500lb Paveways should’ve already been put on the Gr.1. Paveway IV on the other hand should be on the Gr.4 but only with the INS. We don’t need any GPS in the game just yet.
It depends on how GPS weapons were implemented. If they added a way to set multiple targets, then fly over the target and CCRP released them at roughly the right time, and they would auto guide onto those pre-set targets. Then that would be really cool. At the moment, I just never use GBUs on the Tornado Gr1 in SB because doing multiple passes is dangerous and rather laborious. But if I could release a full bombload of GBUs on a battlefield in 1 pass… Then that would be really fun, and would perhaps make up for the lack of Brimstone initially.
Issue with 9M… They werent compatible/never fitted. Its Aim-9L (Maybe Aim-9L/I but I dont think so) or ASRAAM. Considering the Tornado GR4 entered service roughly at the same time as ASRAAM. Does kinda make sense.
Welp if it didn’t use the 9M then the L/I would do. Buddy lasing though should be added at some point.
Yeah, that would be kinda cool, though rarely used.
That might be the single most scary thing I have ever seen
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I would love to see the engineers face when they were told of this idea
The sheer amount of drag those things would make would rip the aircraft apart
Not to mention the water getting thrown up into the intakes
I’ve seen that image a few times but what in the world was the guy who made this thinking?
It’s like the late Cold War casemate. Chimera.
Clearly it can drop the floats and become a weird x wing
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Aircraft rank VI ~ rank X from 6 countries (British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Oman & South African) ?
Singapore also, basically just Britain + western Commonwealth aircraft
Anyone know why the UK hasn’t backcharged Germany for blocking the EF sales to Saudi and Turkey. IIRC in the original contract if any partner blocked a foreign sale they had to pay compensation and with 40 typhoons due to go out of service, across both sales you could replace them 1-1 with the new T4’s?
A pre-KAHU A-4K would have to end up at 8.3 or something, at least with how the BRs currently are.
Sure, it’s an A-4F airframe with the J52-P-8A. But one that doesn’t have a radar warning system or a countermeasure dispensing system (both were only added with KAHU).
It also wouldn’t have any guided weaponry outside of a pair of AIM-9Gs - again, that capability was only added as part of KAHU - leaving you with a selection of unguided rockets (Mighty Mouse, Zuni, CRV7) and dumb bombs (Mk 81, 82, 83 only). And you wouldn’t even have CCRP to help with those, as the avionics needed for that weren’t fitted (and - to sound like a broken record - were only added with KAHU).
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no clue politics
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Incidentally, the A-4K - both before and after KAHU - isn’t a naval aircraft. It physically doesn’t have the equipment needed to launch from carriers.
Do you have a source for that, from what I can tell the A-4Ks gear remained unchanged from standard A-4s and they retained the arrestor hook that was graded for carrier operations.
Not to mention the fact that every major source I see does not list them as lacking carrier provisions, which is something I feel would be quite a major modification
It’s about more than just the tailhook. After all, the F-15 has one, but it isn’t a naval aircraft.
Carrier-capable A-4s have bridle hooks inside the main gear wells, as seen on this A-4M:
Compare that with the main gear well of Skyhawk NZ6205, one of the original A-4K aircraft that was later upgraded under KAHU. Note the lack of a bridle hook, thus meaning the aircraft can’t launch from a carrier:
Also note the painted-over indexer lights in the leading edge ahead of the gear well (no need for them, as not flying from carriers).
Here’s the same aircraft in 1973. Make note of the lack of bridle hooks in the gear wells.
Also, here’s one of my sources, pictured next to a Skyhawk stick from my personal collection (manufactured for the RNZAF alongside Project KAHU)
So yeah. No bridle hooks means no catapult capability, which means no carrier capability.
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Ok, fair enough, although i cant really see the A-4K fitting into the tree any other way so it may just have to stay where it is