F-15E Strike Eagle flare dispensers

In War Thunder, the F-15E cannot carry both the targeting pod and the second group of flare dispensers. It can in the real world, but why isn’t this in the game correctly? The first image shows all 4 dispensers in groups of 2. The second photo shows 2 dispensers dropping flares.


F-15E dropping flares 2

14 Likes

The fact they made the flares in pods in the first place seemed so weirdly unnecessary to me in the first place.

That’s a different pod in the first image.

And 120 chaff for ground RB is more than enough.

I’m still looking but my initial glossary search the pod in the image is the targeting one, the one Gaijin has modeled might be the navigation one (both part of the LATIRN system). VERY uncertain on this one currently though.

Mind helping me look?

Edit:
Even with the longer pod it seems like flares can still be mounted in 2 out of the four slots:


(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/F-15E_Strike_Eagle_With_Landing_Gear_Down_Underside_View.jpg)

And the shorter one all four:
Screenshot 2025-04-18 193845
(https://www.dyess.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3090640/red-tails-conduct-joint-air-integration-exercise/)

Larger better image with the short pod and all four flare dispensers loaded

1 Like

Oh, I forgot to add this in the 2nd half of my post: What the manual says goes.
What crews do IRL, or a memo changing the rules, don’t inherently override the manual’s rules.

Sadly the manual is what forbids flares and LANTIRN on at the same time.

Even if they allowed chaff or flares later, the game’s secondary loadout system would need to change to allow that.

Aren’t the F-15E manuals classified and not used? Are any of the F-15 manuals released for public viewing?

There was one, the oldest version of the F-15E manual, which also means the one that uses LANTIRN and not LITENING.

Seeing that we already have the F-15E with the JHMCS and the SDB and the fact that we have the Litening II in the game, I don’t see why they wouldn’t add it.

image

So what your saying is they can’t give it more flares or they don’t want to? We aren’t going to need any navigation pods in War thunder I think. The LITENING when equipped, they are still able to use some flare dispenser’s.
F-15E dropping flares 2

2 Likes

it would take literally 0 change to add a chaff pod that you can equip with the targeting pod on that side countermeasures slot

1 Like

IF that loadout was provable in a non-classified version of a manual, they couldn’t act on it due to game limitations.

Though @Alpharius11348 did respond with a potential solution.

with how the F-15E has the CM modeled as pods, its fully possible to have CM pods mounted at same time as something else (see BOL & AIM-9M on F-14B)

Considering we got loadouts on the F-15E (GPS munitions for instance) not stated in the available manual, it’s likely that the devs would be open for considerations based on less strict sources. These pictures I’d say should qualify as the available manual is outdated and should only be relied on if no other information is available.

Despite, I think the currently available manual doesn’t even contradict the images shown. If we read carefully, the manual only forbids carriage of flares on the outer set of CMDs and only the outer row of the inner set of CMDs:

Spoiler

image

Illustration:
image

This could be implemented by adding a loadout on the TGP pylon that includes the TGP + a 50 flare/chaff dispenser + 70 chaff only dispenser. I don’t think this should be impossible.

3 Likes

It’s not when they still deploy 2 at a time.

Spoiler

26bd2foqgw231~2

The real answer is the devs are either lazy or incompetent.

The implementation is wrong, plain and simple. And the documentation on the subject is readily available.

They claimed to have used this for their report on the release speed of some weapons in the last update:
F-15E — the GBU-15(V)2 and AGM-130 drop limits have been changed from 1.01 to 1.4M. (Report 3). Source: T.O. 1F-15E-1 - F-15E Flight Manual - April 1993.

And if they are going to use that one, then they can just as easily use the 1990 edition, which also says the same thing.