Viper update

Ready for world war 3!

Spotted these on reddit. Hopefully we’ll have them this month.

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Purdy.

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I bet they hardly ever do HAS mode in real life. Only when the pod is on the fritz.

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Update from Wags based on community request for allowing the 4 HARM loadout on our F-16C:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=4491904&postcount=69

Yes, we will be getting that! So the video is already out of date. :sweat_smile:

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I wonder how the stabs are gonna like that back-blast :sweat_smile: Does this mean we’re also getting mavs on our inner pylons? For 8 total?

More like how far are you gonna go with four of them plus an ECM pod, unless you give up the pod for a centerline bag.

AFAIK the 4/6 stations should also allow for AGM-65s.

FTFY. If we’re going to fly unrealistic doomsday warloads, why not go whole hog stormbreaker configs.

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Wait, I want to know more! What’s that?

But this thing was not born in a week. The stormbreaker programme ran from the early eighties, iirc.

The idea was to have a whole bunch of smallish guided missiles on vipers, phantoms, whatever and break up the tide of red armor they were expecting to come barrelling down the Fulda gap.

The initial sketches were of smaller editions of the maverick that would be carried eight in a pod. Those didnt work very well and were abandoned.

After that, I didnt see the name stormbreaker disappeared from the pages of Air International until the SDB II with dual mode seeker turned out to be named stormbreaker.

It very much is the weapon envisaged in the original stormbreaker programme: small enough to be carried by the dozens while also having stand-off range from SHORAD and seeker technology sufficiently advanced to blast a T-72 storming up the plain.

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Possibly, they are different launchers and different weapons systems.

The AGM-65 mission isnt all that big in the 16 world, IIRC.

If I had to guess the 4x88’s is a fulda gap type deal, like the LAU-88’s and A-10s

Afaik the mini-maverick fell through when they failed to miniturize the optics for it. It just wouldn’t lock at sufficient distance. So programmes were started looking into laser beam riding (hello hellfire!) and millimetre radar imaging (hello brimstone).

Hellfire turned out awesome for helicopters, but in the low clouds of europe, and with the range you’d get out of it, it was deemed an inefficient weapon for fast(ish in the case of the hog) movers. That’s why you don’t see hellfires on hogs or mudhens.

Now imaging millimetre radar was an awesome idea, but it took decades to get right. First they built radar hellfire, then brimstone which has a dual mode seeker, and now the SDB II, stormbreaker. Only forty years late.

I can’t really cite sources tbh. It’s all bits that stuck in my brain from reading mags, the late great Bill Gunston and Mike Spick, etc. I tried looking this stuff up, but only SDB comes up, and none of its forebears or genesis.

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This is why we need the Typhoon and brimstone, but I dont think we will see it in DCS :frowning:

AGM-65s were never certified on 4/6 originally and according to the USAF manuals and multiple guys that worked them it was never an authorised loadout…basically 3/7 only and only two max for the past 17+ years.

But as usual there are photos at air shows of Mavericks on 4/6 and there might apparently be some export users that can fire it from 4/6 who might have paid to get it certified but can’t verify that.

Looking at the rate of development going down the export Rabbit Hole might not be in their best interests…they also need to rename it to Falcon as the majority of users never called it Viper! :upside_down_face:

1980s Mavericks might have been completely useless for a Euro Fulda Gap scenario from F-16s it turns out…impractical and difficult to employ… dumb bombs only preferred. The F-4s had a backseater at least and Iranians seem to have claimed some success in the very different Middle East environment. Be interesting to see if Israeli F-16As attempted to use it in 82.

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Only photos I ever saw were of an ED(edwards) bird with 4 88s but it was a illegal outside of testing load out.

Since they are adding this though why aren’t we getting SDB capability? By 2007 I believe 16s were using them or had the ability to use them.

Current mavs, while better, still have a lot of issues. Thats why the laser maverick came along.

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SDBs were not operational on F-16s till some years later. The loadouts have mostly been following 2007 USAF TO1F-16CM-1-2.

No SDBs.

4 x HARMs is an authorised loadout according to this…however again 4/6 might not be fully setup to actually fire it according to some SMEs

Just wait until you see my DEADCAS king loadout consisting of 2 HARMs, 6 Mavericks, 4 slammers, centre-line ECM, HTS on one cheek with the TGP on the other. I wonder if it’ll push anywhere near the mach at any altitude and if it’ll make it to the tanker.

I’m also pretty sure people are going to fly like that in multiplayer but more power to them.

@schurem does this qualify as a stormbreaker loadout?

This was my thought as well (naturally I’m no SME, though). I thought it didn’t have the necessary video lines to support 65’s or 88’s. If it’s gonna get the wires to support 88 launches, I’m wondering if that means it’ll de-facto get 65 launch capability as well.

AFAIK no, that would be a specialised mass tank destroyer loasout. 12x maverick or 8xCBU97.