wrote:

Yes, but it has just come to my mind the datalink pods were to be
carried on the centerline station (as seen on the bottom of this page:
http://www.voodoo.cz/hornet/arm.html ), or inboard wing stations, but
the outboard stations were usually "reserved" for large weapons like
SLAM or Walleye itself. So, maybe these pods are also a kind of
"luggage" this time?

Marine FAC-configured F/A-18Ds use the outboard stations also for
LAU-10 4-tube Zuni launchers - and hence my suspections. But this is
definitely a Navy aircraft, and the USN has some reasons to NOT love
Zunis.

Regards,

Jacek




It's a mystery to me.
I don't think I have ever seen an unguided rocket pod with these
aerodynamic fairings on them, but then again, the only station on the
Hornet I have ever seen the AAW-somenumber (the AAW-6 was replaced by
the AAW-9, and that perhaps has been replaced as well) datalink pod was
on the centerline. As I wrote before, carrying two of them outboard
seems somewhat strange. The typical configuration on the Hornet indeed
would be seem to be Walleyes/SLAM on the outboard wingstations, external
fuel tanks in the inboard ones and the datalink pod on the centerline.

This photo stirs up a whole bunch of questions for me.
Would it be common practice to have another aircraft than the one
launching the weapons carry the datalink, as Joe Delphi suggested?
And talking about Walleyes; those aren't in service anymore, are they? I
seem to recall reading about how the JFK's A-7Es during Desert Storm
used quite a few of them, because they were going to be retired anyway.
Might as well use them for something worthwhile. Is the AGM-84E SLAM
still in service, or have all of those been rebuilt to AGM-84H SLAM-ER
already? Does that use the same datalink.


Regards,
Ralph Savelsberg