by Leonard "Viking1" Hjalmarson

Yesterday I flew a practice mission on ground targets. I loaded up with a diversity of weapons solely for the sake of checking out systems and employment.

The Super Hornet can haul an incredible payload, and an incredible diversity of weapons. In this screen you can see that I have added both types of FLIR, rocket pods, MK77 incendiary, a pair of Mavericks, a pair of MK20s, not to mention the standard 20mm cannon rounds and the ubiquitous AIM9X. Note that the Super Hornet does not require balancing stores per wing since the FLCS is capable of adjusting for unequal weight and drag.

Custom Arming Screen

JANE'S Online Reference: Fire Bomb

Inbound to Practice Range

Armed Hornet

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FLIR NAV camera in HUD

The image above shows the FLIR NAV camera superimposed on the HUD for superior low light vision. The left MFD shows the AGM65G Maverick selected and we are drawing an image from the weapons onboard camera. Next is an uncompressed zoomed shot of the FLIR HUD.

Custom Arming Screen

In the above image I have gone to A2G mode, reflected by the change in the right MFD with ground radar now on. The Advanced Targetting FLIR has now been selected in the Up Front Controller. The A/GATFLIR consists of four pointing modes in addition to an Autotrack mode. The target designation laser is also part of the ATFLIR pod, and is always slaved to the current FLIR image.

The four pointing modes are divided evenly between ground and aircraft stabilization. A gound stabilized display means that the ATFLIR pod tries to remain pointing at the same spot on the ground regardless of aircraft motion. An aircraft stabilized display maintains the current azimuth and elevation settings for the pod while the aircraft manouvers (also called a "snowplow" mode).

Go to Part II