Information supplied and copyrighted
by Joe Baugher
Armament of General
Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon
Last revised March 19,
2000
There are two primary components to the
defensive armament of the USAF's F-15A/B--the AIM-9 Sidewinder infrared-homing missile and
an internal 20-mm cannon. The F-16C/D has the additional capability of being able to carry
and launch the AIM-120 AMRAAM beyond-visible-range air-to-air missile. In addition, the
F-16 has the ability to carry a wide variety of external stores on the centerline and six
underwing pylons.
AMRAAM:
The APG-66 radar fitted to the F-16A/B
was not originally intended to handle BVR missiles such as the Sparrow or the AMRAAM.
However, the need for a BVR capability became apparent soon after the F-16A/B entered
service. The long-term solution was to be the AMRAAM missile, which was originally
scheduled to enter service in the mid-1980s, but was delayed by a protracted series of
developmental difficulties. Possible interim solutions were the British Aerospace Skyflash
or the Raytheon AIM-7 Sparrow.
The first tests of a Sparrow-armed F-16
were made by General Dyanmics with inert rounds attached to the wingtip, to the underwing
pylons, and even to a pylon being attached to the mainwheel door. The undercarriage door
location was used for some test firings with the Sparrow in November of 1977, and a test
launch with a BAe Skyflash was made a year later.
However, the need for interim BVR
missiles for the F-16 was questioned by some analysts, who claimed that the problem of
positive target identification would always inhibit the use of BVR missiles, and that
their high cost would limit the amount of live-fire training that could be carried out.
Consequently, plans for an interim BVR missile for the F-16 were shelved.
The ultimate BVR weapon for the F-16
turned out to be the Hughes AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile),
which is carried by the F-16C/D. The AMRAAM is intended to combine the BVR performance of
the Sparrow in an airframe that is not much larger than that of the AIM-9 Sidewinder.
The AMRAAM is a "fire and
forget" weapon. The Sparrow AAM had a semi-active radar guidance system which
required that the target be continuously illuminated throughout the entire duration of the
engagement. The AMRAAM is guided to the vicinity of its target by an inertial guidance
system which can be updated if necessary by a datalink from the launching aircraft. For
the final run to the target, the missile switches over to its own high-PRF radar seeker
and homes in on the target. Since this seeker uses its own active radar, it does not
require the launch aircraft to illuminate the target or to track the target. If the target
attempts to protect itself with jamming, the AMRAAM seeker can be set to operate in a
medium-PRF home-on-jam mode. Although the AIM-120 handles its own terminal homing onto the
target, it usually still requires radar illumination from the fighter for a portion of its
initial run-in to the target.
The AMRAAM is 11.97 feet long, has a
wingspan of 20.7 inches, and a diameter of 7 inches. The AMRAAM is considerably lighter
than the Sparrow, weighing only about 350 pounds at launch. It carries a 48-pound
high-explosive directed-fragmentation warhead. Maximum speed is about Mach 4, and the
maximum range is 35-45 miles.
The AMRAAM has suffered from a protracted
development process, and was not fully operational until after the Gulf War of 1991 was
over. However, the few times that it has been fired in actual combat, the results with the
AMRAAM have been highly effective.
Sidewinder:
Most F-16s can carry an AIM-9 Sidewinder
(today AIM-9M) infrared-homing air-to-air missile on each wingtip.
The Sidewinder infrared homing missile
dates back to 1956, but the missile has been continuously upgraded over the years. Early
F-16As carried the AIM-9J, which was the first major post-Vietnam improvement of the
Sidewinder missile. The J model had an expanded target-engagement cone which enabled it to
be launched at any spot in the rear half of a target aircraft rather than merely at its
exhaust. Compared with the Vietnam-era AIM-9G, it had a more powerful motor and an
improved warhead. The AIM-9J introduced the Sidewinder Expanded Acquisition Mode (SEAM),
which slaved the seeker head of the missile to the radar when in "dogfight"
mode, which enabled the AIM-9J seeker head to be uncaged, slewed toward a specific target
by the aircraft radar, and made to track that particular target only before being
launched. The AIM-9H introduced some minor improvements. The AIM-9L introduced in 1979 was
"all-aspect", and was no longer limited to engaging an enemy aircraft from the
rear. The seeker head was more sensitive and was able to pick up heat from the friction
off the leading edges of an aircraft's wing and was able to distinguish between aircraft
and decoy flares. The AIM-9L also uses a higher-impulse rocket motor, a more powerful
warhead, and a proximity fuse rigged to blow outward toward the target in order to ensure
better probability of a kill. The AIM-9M introduced in 1982 had better capability to
distinguish between aircraft and decoy flares, and has a low-smoke rocket motor which
makes it far less likely to be seen by its prey. The number of vacuum tubes was reduced to
two.
The AIM-9 Sidewinder is 9.4 feet long,
has a wingspan of 25 inches and a diameter of 5 inches. The missile has four tail fins on
the rear, with a "rolleron" at the tip of each fin. These "rollerons"
are spun at high speed by the slipstream in order to provide roll stability. The missile
is steered by four canard fins mounted in the forward part of the missile just behind the
infrared seeker head. The Sidewinder missile has a launch weight of about 180 pounds, and
a maximum effective range of about 10 miles. The blast-fragmentation warhead weighs 21
pounds. Despite the advanced age of the basic design, the all-aspect AIM-9L Sidewinder
still remains a potent threat, exceeded in effectiveness perhaps only by the Russian-built
Molniya/Vympel R-73 (known in the West as the AA-11 *Archer*) which combines aerodynamic
and thrust-vectoring control systems.
Other Air-to-Air Missiles:
Some export operators of the F-16 carry
their own specialized air-to-air missiles in the place of the Sidewinder/AMRAAM set
carried by USAF F-16C/Ds.
Some export users are not yet cleared to
receive the AIM-9L, so they operate such export-model Sidewinders as the AIM-9P3 or the
newer all-aspect AIM-9P4.
Pakistani and Belgian F-16s carry Matra
R.550 Magic 2 air-to-air infrared homing missiles instead of Sidewinders. The original
Magic I entered service in 1975, and the improved Magic 2 entered service in late 1985.
The first qualification firings of the R.550 from the F-16 began in May of 1989. The Magic
2 differs from the Magic 1 in having an all-aspect infrared seeker, which can be slaved to
the launching aircraft's air-interception radar and steered onto the designated target
before launch (the Magic 1's seeker carried out an autonomous search before launch). The
R.550 has a launch weight of 198 pounds, a length of 109 inches, a body diameter of 6.2
inches, and a fin span of 26.3 inches. The maximum range is of the order of 10 kilometers.
The missile has a 28-pound rod/fragmentation type high explosive warhead with an
all-sector proximity fuse or impact-loop detonation that is better suited to head-on
interceptions than was the warhead of the Magic 1.
Israel F-16s can carry the Rafael Python
3 missile on the Sidewinder wingtip rails. The Python 3 was rushed into service during the
1982 Israeli incursion into Lebanon, with pre-production rounds being tested in actual
air-to-air combat against Syrian aircraft. The Python 3 is an infrared homer having a
weight of about 265 pounds and is 118 inches long with a body diameter of 6.25 inches and
a fin span of 33.9 inches. The conventional rod-type high-explosive warhead weighs 24
pounds. It has a maximum range of about 15 kilometers and a maximum speed of Mach 3.5. The
infrared seeker of the Python 3 has a plus or minus 30-degree gimbal angle and can be
operated in boresight, uncaged, or radar-slaved mode. The Python 3 is claimed by Israel to
have a speed, turning radius, and range superior to that of the AIM-9L Sidewinder.
Specialized F-16A/B aircraft serving with
air defense units of the Air National Guard could carry and launch the AIM-7 Sparrow
missile from the middle underwing hardpoints. In addition, export F-16 customers such as
Bahrain and Egypt can carry and launch Sparrow missiles. The current versions are the
AIM-7M and AIM-7P. The first Sparrow versions to see large-scale service were the AIM-7E,
AIM-7E2, and AIM-7F, but combat results with these missiles during the 1960s over Vietnam
were disappointing. The AIM-7F version of the Sparrow introduced solid-state electronics
as substitutes for the miniature vacuum tubes of the earlier versions. This
miniaturization enabled the warhead to be moved forward of the wings, with the aft part of
the missile being devoted almost entirely to the rocket motor. The extra space that was
made available by the introduction of solid-state miniaturization made it possible to
introduce a dual-thrust booster/sustainer rocket motor that enabled the effective range of
the Sparrow to be essentially doubled (up to 28-30 miles) in a head-on engagement. The
AIM-7L had fewer tubes and more solid state features. The AIM-7M introduced in 1982
featured a inverse-processed digital monopulse seeker which was more difficult to detect
and jam and provided better look-down, shoot-down capability. The AIM-7P was fitted with
improved guidance electronics including an on-board computer based on VLSIC technology. It
is intended to have better capability against small targets such as cruise missiles and
sea-skimming antiship missiles.
The AIM-7M is 12 feet long and has a
launch weight of about 500 pounds. The missile carries a 85-pound high-explosive blast
fragmentation warhead. It has two sets of delta-shaped fins--a set of fixed fins at the
rear of the missile and a set of movable fins at the middle of the missile for steering.
The maximum effective range is of the order of 45 kilometers (28 miles).
Cannon:
For the very closest air-to-air
encounters, the F-16 carries a 20-mm M61A1 cannon installed in the port wing leading edge
lip. The gun is fed by an ammunition drum containing 515 rounds located inside the central
fuselage.
There were some initial problems with the
M16A1 when carried by the F-16. Gun firing from the F-16 was temporarily suspended in
September 1979 following two incidents in which the firing of the gun resulted in
uncommanded yawing movements. It turned out that vibrations produced by the firing of the
gun had affected an accelerometer in the flight control system, causing it to feed false
data into the control computer. A simple modification insulated the accelerometer from
vibration. All 106 F-16s delivered with the original pattern of accelerometer installation
were modified.
Bombs and Ground-Attack Missiles:
The F-16 has six underwing hardpoints and
one under-fuselage hardpoint for the carriage of fuel tanks or weapons. A huge variety of
weapons can be carried, including air-to-surface missiles, "smart" bombs,
conventional iron bombs, and even tactical nuclear weapons.
One of the more important warloads
carried by the F-16 is the Hughes AGM-65 Maverick, which is used to make precision attacks
on point targets. The Maverick carries a 135-pound shaped-charge warhead which is
effective against a large variety of targets, including tanks.
The Maverick comes in AGM-65A, B, and D
versions, which use television guidance, scene magnification television guidance, and
imaging infrared guidance respectively. In the AGM-65A and B, a imaging vidicon seeker is
carried in the nose of the missile which can be slewed on its mounting and used to view
the target area. The image seen by the seeker is displayed on a TV screen in the cockpit,
and the pilot can align the target on the aiming mark, then command a lock-on. The
A-version has a 5 degree of view, and the B version has a 2.5-degree field of view but can
detect targets at a longer range. The TV Mavericks are not ideally suited for launch from
single seat fighters because of the time needed to acquire the target and to lock the
seeker onto it. In addition, the system cannot be used at night or under conditions of low
visibility.
The AGM-65D infrared Maverick uses an
infrared rather than a vidicon seeker, and displays an infrared image on the cockpit
display. Two magnifications are provided, a wide angle for target acquisition and a narrow
angle for final identification and lock-on. Once a target is identified, the protective
cover is jettisoned from the cooled infrared seeker, allowing the infrared seeker to
"view" the target. The seeker is steered manually onto a suitable target. The
system is tricky and awkward to use in combat. During Desert Storm, pilots complained
about having to keep their heads down while watching the screen, locking the seeker onto
the target, and launching the missile.
The AGM-65D can also be slaved to or cued
by target acquisition systems such as infrared lasers. These target designation systems
can be carried by other aircraft or can be operated by soldiers on the ground. Later
blocks of the F-16C/D can carry their own laser designation equipment (e.g. the Martin
Marietta LANTIRN pods), so they can operate independently of other designation aircraft.
Guided weapons that can be carried by the
F-16 include antiradiation missiles such as the AGM-45 Shrike, the AGM-78 Standard, and
the Texas Instruments AGM-88 HARM.
Norwegian F-16s have an important
anti-shipping role, and can carry and launch the locally-built Kongsberg Penguin antiship
missile. Deliveries of the Penguin 3 began in 1987. The weapon was tested by the the USAF
under the designation AGM-119. Midcourse guidance is by an inertial system and radio
altimeter, while final aiming is by an infrared seeker.
An impressive array of bombs can be
carried on the six underwing pylons. The F-16 can deliver smart, laser-guided bombs if
there is another laser-equipped aircraft nearby (or a facility on the ground) which can
illuminate the target to be attacked. Later LANTIRN-equipped F-16C/Ds can carry their own
laser designator and can therefore deliver smart bombs without assistance.
Sources:
- Combat Aircraft F-16, Doug Richardson,
Crescent, 1992.
- General Dynamics Aircraft and their
Predecessors, John Wegg, Naval Institute Press, 1990.
- The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and
Peter Bowers, Orion, 1987.
- United States Military Aircraft Since
1909, Gordon Swanborough and Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.
- F-16 Fighting Falcon--A Major Review of
the West's Universal Warplane, Robert F. Dorr, World Airpower Journal, Spring 1991.
- The World's Great Interceptor Aircraft,
Gallery, 1989.
- Modern Military Aircraft--F-16 Viper, Lou
Drendel, Squadron/Signal Publications, 1992.
- Lockheed F-16 Variants, Part 1, World
Airpower Journal, Volume 21, Summer 1995.
- E-mail from Ben Marselis
