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Help with an ACMI or AN/APX-95 TACTS pod question


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Hi all! I'm replacing the ACMI pod on my 1/48 F-16N with one from Hasegawa's Weapon Set D. The one from the weapons set has some lugs protruding from one side, to me they look like collars that are done up with nuts and bolts. My question is: when they're mounted on a wingtip rail (I'm planning on mounting mine on the starboard wingtip), which way do these fasteners face? Does anyone out there have some good reference pictures? I have googled as well as had a look through the gallery at F-16.net and haven't found anything yet that can really be of any help.

TIA!!

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Awesome pic! Thanks for that, that's exactly what I was after! Love the Fighting Bengals scheme, haven't seen them since they deployed to Townsville, Nth Queensland for Ex Croc '03.

Thanks again!

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Just to point out.....

Hornets use collars on the pod to provide ballast, as seen in the pic. (the 3 dark grey 'lumps") No other aircraft uses those ballast "thingies" (technical term, that one!) on the pod when they fly.

So....

The pod in the Has kit is correct for everything "but" and F/A-18. To be correct for a Hornet, you have to add the ballast.

Cheers

Matthew

the Aussie in West Bend Wisconsin

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Just to point out.....

Hornets use collars on the pod to provide ballast, as seen in the pic. (the 3 dark grey 'lumps") No other aircraft uses those ballast "thingies" (technical term, that one!) on the pod when they fly.

So....

The pod in the Has kit is correct for everything "but" and F/A-18. To be correct for a Hornet, you have to add the ballast.

Cheers

Matthew

the Aussie in West Bend Wisconsin

Thanks for pointing that out, I didn't know that. I was looking at the picture thinking I had a little bit of work to do, but now I don't. Yay!! :cheers:

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Just to point out.....

Hornets use collars on the pod to provide ballast, as seen in the pic. (the 3 dark grey 'lumps") No other aircraft uses those ballast "thingies" (technical term, that one!) on the pod when they fly.

So....

The pod in the Has kit is correct for everything "but" and F/A-18. To be correct for a Hornet, you have to add the ballast.

Cheers

Matthew

the Aussie in West Bend Wisconsin

While use of the external ballast weights is mandatory on legacy Hornet wingtips, they are authorized with other USN/USMC aircraft to simplify maintenance. Now, pods can be moved between aircraft types without having to install or remove the weights. Also, depending on their weight some, pods only use the front and rear weights.

As to the name of the pods themselves--that is a total rat's nest of designations. The Navy commonly calls them Tactical Aircrew Combat Training System (TACTS), but that designation only applies to the AN/ASQ-T17 and T25. Another common pod type is the Large Area Tracking Range (LATR), the AN/ASQ-39T, 40T, 40A-T1, which also proves that even the experts can't figure out their own designation system (these pods SHOULD have been T39, T40 and T40A-1). The most recent Fleet pod is the Tactical Combat Training System (TCTS), the AN/ASQ-T50(V)2 (which only uses two weights).

The USAF uses different terminology for these kinds of pods, some of which you used in your title.

Edited by mrvark
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  • 1 year later...

On the CF-18 at first they had the weights on the P4 pods, as well called them, then the weights were removed which made them much easier to lug around. Now the weights have been put back on.

Jari

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Thank you. anyway, what kind of datalink do you use on the AN/ASQ T-50(V)2? Is it Link 11?

Can the AN/ASQ T-50(V)2 be exported through commersial package? Or it can only be on Foreign Military Sales (FMS)?

Which Foreign Airforces and Fighter Aircrafts used the AN/ASQ T-50(V)2 Pod?

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