Did the A-4 ever get a laser desegnator or ability to carry laser desegnator pod as to carry laser guided bombs? im also curious where i can find an ordinance chart for each pylon of the A-4E and A-4B, and is there any possibility in anyones opinion that the US can get more A-4s? like an A-4M?
The earliest was a TA-4J that had a hand held laser by the back seater in '71. (The forgotten, incredible story of the only time the two-seat TA-4F Skyhawk went to combat from a carrier flightdeck - The Aviation Geek Club)
Being able to hang a pod doesn’t matter if a plane doesn’t have the wiring or cockpit electronics to use it.
i see, however i did find a version with the corsair’s targeting pod, it’s in the thumbnail of the video below
would you happen to know why there’s no walleye in the middle slot for the A-4E? gaijined?
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I think it’s because it’s the early version. Or just Gaijin moments
The M was the first fitted with a laser. Chronologically. But lots of older airframes got rebuilt for it, esp. for export. Yeah, It really depends on “game balance” where they want to sit in various tech trees.
Generally speaking, you’d need to look in the NAVAIR documents for the aircraft, as things like Wikipedia aren’t exactly accurate.
I’m talking the NATOPS flight manuals, the maintenance instruction manuals for the armament systems, and the standard aircraft characteristics documents. SACs give you a good idea of the rough capabilities, and the other two either fill in gaps or outright correct the SACs.
Pretty much. The initial modifications that gave the A-4E the ability to carry the Walleye applied to stations 2, 3, and 4 (the centerline and both inner underwing stations), and none of the subsequent modifcations to the Walleye system installed in the aircraft (including A-4 AFC 395 from 1970, the one the A-4E Early is fitted with) ever limited that carriage capability.
The A-4M never had an actual designator.
The system in the nose was the AN/ASB-19 Angle-Rate Bombing System, which could serve as a laser-spot tracker. It can’t self-designate targets, but it can hit targets that are being buddy-lased