F-16 wingtip AAM question...
This has puzzled me for a while, and I figured someone here may know the answer. Why is it, whenever you see an F-16 carrying either live or acquisition/drill AAMs on the wingtip rails, they are always AIM-120, with the much smaller, lighter AIM-9 on the outboard underwing pylons?
Surely it makes more sense to carry the larger and heavier AIM-120 underwing and the smaller, lighter AIM-9 on the wingtip rails? I can't remember seeing the F-16 ADF's carrying the AIM-7/AIM-9 combo in the same way as the, AIM-120/AIM-9 combo, surely carrying the larger and heavier missile on the wingtip rail causes more stress to the wing? So can someone enlighten me please?
-RP