Tornado GR Munitions Dispensed.

[Gaz ED]

A thought occurred to me that the Tonka GR1/4 variants must have dropped a cart-load of ordnance in its' life-time. I was wondering, in terms of ordnance dropped divided by fleet size, where it fits in against the B-52, F-4, F 16 etc.

Google is not my friend, so any ideas/web-sites where this could be researched.

Yes, I am sad/bored/mental (delete as applicable).

[MATELO]

sad/bored/mental

No deletions, all 3 :8

[30mRad]

B52 wins hands down on tonnage/aircraft, and B1 isn't far behind with (IIRC 24 1000 lbs class munitions in the bomb bay).

In the good olde days, GR would carry 8 1000 lb wpns underneath on things called twin store carriers - basically a gizmo that lets you put 2 bombs on one load carrying pylon. The carriers were used in GW1 but post-that have been discontinued. That leaves us with 3 x Paveway 2 class or 2 x Paveway 3 class weapons, although a targetting pod removes one of those. There are other combinations of targetting pod, wpns and recce pods that the ac can carry, and Paveway 4 weapons opens up more options.

Compare that to an F15E or an F16 and you come off poorly. An F15E, with the twin store carrier equivalent can carry (IIRC) 12 500 lb class weapons (US don't really do 1000 lb class). Not sure where the F16 sits - smaller airframe and think it only has space for 6 500 lb class weapons.

Important bit is not how much tonnage you can deliver, but the effect you can deliver and for how long - 12 500 lb GPS/LASER guided wpns in a CAS environment is better than 3!

Typhoon not much better - think it is 6 weapons plus a targetting pod.

Does that answer the question?!

[Easy Street]

30mRad,

You haven't really answerd Gaz's question, which relates to ordnance dropped, not carried. Answering this would require analysis of all the conflicts that each aircraft has taken part in and the number of each aircraft type in service...

I can't be bothered to work out exact numbers, but here's my take on it, with some reasoning for the rough guessing:

Ordnance dropped on Operations per airframe over life of fleet:

1. B52. Huge bomb load. Been in service forever. Carpet-bombed Vietnam for years. Dropped lots in GW1 as well. Large aeroplane so not as numerous as the fighters.

2. GR4. Dropped lots of bombs in GW1, Kosovo and GW2, but only been ticking-over since then. High place in the table justified by the relatively tiny fleet, which exaggerates the per airframe part of the question.

3. B1. Probably dropped the least number of bombs on operations of all types listed. Didn't take part in any ops until '98. Since then, has played catch-up in Kosovo and GW2. Similar fleet size to GR4. Drops in support of the GWOT merely keep it ticking over when compared to the rate of employment during a full war.

4. F4. Dropped far more bombs than GR4 or B1 over its life, mainly due to Vietnam. However, vastly more numerous, so bombs per aircraft = less. Plus a large proportion of F4 only did Air-Air stuff.

5. F-16. Don't bother thinking too hard about how many bombs F-16s have dropped. There are so many thousands of F-16s out there that all the bombs dropped by the Israelis and the US get diluted by the sheer number of aircraft, giving a poor ratio.

F-15E wasn't mentioned but would probably slot in at #2 - the fleet size is roughly double that of GR4 or B1, but the 15E has been busy in all major conflicts from GW1 onwards.

Harriers (all types combined) would probably slot in above the F4, with Kosovo and GW2 being the main bomb-dropping periods. Falklands bombing was comparatively minuscule; however, reasonable amount dropped between 2005-2009 in Afghanistan.

Typhoon - last place. Zero operational weapon expenditure!

I won't award myself a :8 because this is all guesswork... (apart from the Typhoon bit!)

[SammySu]

UK Harrier dropped significantly more in Afghanistan than in Kosovo and GW2 combined. Add in the USMC AV8bs and I'd suggest they are pretty high up in ordnance per airframe.

[L J R]

And don't forget the soon to be retired F-111 - which also dropped in all wars that the B-52 has participated (Except now Afghanistan) - and is also credited with a little episode in Tripoli. The F-111 was famous for its Desert Storm Tank Plinking, AGM-130 activity, and GBU-28 action


...L J R (Had to bring that old chestnut up again).

[NutLoose]

And don't forget the Mighty Jaguar, last heard of, it was still struggling to get airborne with it's full weapon load onboard :p

[Strobin Purple]

According to the GR force they don't even need weapons any more:

Shock and awe: Female RAF Top Gun pilot tells how she beat the Taliban with deafening noise instead of bombs | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246237/Shock-awe-Female-RAF-Top-Gun-pilot-tells-beat-Taliban-deafening-noise-instead-bombs.html)

Apparently for 99% of the time their sheer high speed presence is enough to deter the Taliban from any insurgent activity. Probably all skulking off to the hills as we speak terror struck at the sight of a GR at low level,

or b....

[Gainesy]

A-10s?
Hah, re-calc all round.:)

[sprocky_ger]

So far for the western post WWII aircraft. How about Russian made or WWII a/c? There must have been lots of bombs being dropped in WWII. Plenty of them are still not recovered and found during construction works.

[GeeRam]

The F-105 must be high up the list with it's carry capacity and high utilisation in Vietnam.....?

[L J R]

Ah yes, the ol' THUD - What is the Fastest thing in North Vietnam - a THUD heading south..!

[Rotax]

Ordnance dropped / Fleet size?

I would suggest the Reaper's holding its own at the moment.

[Always a Sapper]

Is this dropped, as in on purpose or more along the lines of where the f*ks that bomb gone, it was there a second ago?

[Load Toad]

Are you allocating marks for dropped on target or just dropped for the hell of it?