Originally Posted by
Stuff
What's the purpose of the strange looking device with what can only be described as antenna sticking out of it mounted on the inner launcher on the starboard wing?
ACMI pod - "Air Combat Manoeuvring Instrumentation".
It's a datalink pod to relay the planes height, speed attitude etc to a base station so that everybody can see who was where and did what at the debrief.
Remember the debriefs in Top Gun ("Gutsiest move I ever saw")? That's what's it's used for.