A-7E loadout-Vietnam

[lavony]

Hello

would love your help, in loadout reference, for my A-7E (VA-113) during the Vietnam era.

i want him to carry Shrike missiles....

thanks

yossi

[mrvark]

Shrikes could be carried on the mid-board or outboard wing pylons using AERO 5 (essentially LAU-34) launchers. The official mixed loading authorizations only show the four Shrikes along with optional AERO 1D fuel tanks on the inboard stations.

 

That said, I've seen pics of an A-7E from VA-195 that was configured with a Shrike on the right outboard station, high-speed PAVE Way I Mk 82 LGBs on both inboard stations (the short wings/fins, like found in the 1:72 Hasegawa weapons kit), and AIM-9G on the left fuselage pylon (right one just had the LAU-7 launcher), a TER on the left outboard station, and MERs on the two mid-board stations. The jet had diverted to Danang and had obviously expended or jettisoned the dumb bombs. The most likely stores carried on the MERs and TER would have been Mk 82s or Mk 20 Rockeye II. However, even having a MER adjacent to a TER didn't show up in the authorized configurations! One possibility could have been to load Mk 20s on the TERs and leave the MERs empty rather than download them. That would give the jet the ability to be pretty maneuverable so it could fire the Shrike and then follow up by hitting the site with Rockeye. Would love to have seen what it looked like when it launched!

[Niels]

Here's a couple of loads you're looking for; 

[Niels]

[GW8345]

3 hours ago, Niels said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I believe this is the picture MrVark (Jim) is talking about.

 

It appears that there was nothing loaded on the TER on station one, the ejector foot on the bottom station is not extended. Both centerline stations on both MER's had something loaded, you can see the ejector feet extended. On MER's and TER's the ejector feet did not retract when fired, the ordies would push them back in after the bird landed. I would suspect that they would have been carrying Cluster Bombs on those MER's.

 

Not a Vietnam load out but when I was in A-7E's we would carry cluster bombs when carrying Shrikes. We would do Mk 20's on centerline and outboard stations on TER's on the outboard pylons and clusters bombs on parent rack pylons on the inboard stations, the Shrikes would be on both mid-board stations. We normally carried at least one Sidewinder along with a full load (1000 rounds) of 20mm. I was told that this load out was modeled after a Vietnam load since we were always fighting the last war back in the early 80's.

 

Just my $.02 worth, ymmv

GW

[Whiskey]

Sounds like something for an Iron Hand load out GW.

[lavony]

Thanks a lot

any combination of shrike + Mk. 83?

 

[GW8345]

6 hours ago, lavony said:

Thanks a lot

any combination of shrike + Mk. 83?

 

You can do that but normally, if you are carrying Shrikes you doing a SEAD mission, Mk 83's weren't normally used for SEAD.

 

If you want to do GP bombs I would suggest Mk 82 Snakeyes.

[GW8345]

12 hours ago, Whiskey said:

Sounds like something for an Iron Hand load out GW.

Yep, if you are flying Shrikes/HARM's, you are doing an Iron Hand/SEAD mission.

[lavony]

3 hours ago, GW8345 said:

Yep, if you are flying Shrikes/HARM's, you are doing an Iron Hand/SEAD mission.

 

In my search, I saw a movie in YouTube, which shows this A-7 , around 1:40 - 1:50 .

https://youtu.be/o4_y_-e-gW8

the quality isn’t good, but can someone identify the weapons ?

Thanks

yossi

 

 

 

 

[mrvark]

47 minutes ago, lavony said:

 

In my search, I saw a movie in YouTube, which shows this A-7 , around 1:40 - 1:50 .

https://youtu.be/o4_y_-e-gW8

the quality isn’t good, but can someone identify the weapons ?

Thanks

yossi

 

Definitely a Shrike on the left outboard. I think Mk 82s on the mid-boards, but I'll defer to Gerry, they might be Mk 83s. Unusual loading; slant-two using the front stations, and both wings slanted to the same side. What caught my eye was another jet about a minute later carrying a SUU-30/B Mod on the outboard--a CBU-29, I think. The other thing I noticed was that the bombs were TP, which I didn't think showed up until later than the 1971 date of the film.

 

 

 

[Rex]

Jim, there is a "TP date" thread on here somewhere.

 

In it, a bunch of us photo-dived to find the earliest date we saw TP bombs.

 

I can't find it, but I think I remember that for certain Carriers, it was late 1970 or sometime in early 71.

 

It was un-scientific, we all just looked for photos of aircraft over Vietnam or on board ship that had two stripes on the nose. (and threw out the obvious miss-dated captions)

[GW8345]

1 hour ago, lavony said:

 

In my search, I saw a movie in YouTube, which shows this A-7 , around 1:40 - 1:50 .

https://youtu.be/o4_y_-e-gW8

the quality isn’t good, but can someone identify the weapons ?

Thanks

yossi

 

 

 

 

I would say those are Mk 83's, they look too fat to be Mk 82's.

 

Never seen anyone fly Shrikes just for a bombing mission, if you notice, on the recoveries, they bring all the Shrikes back.

[Finn]

Here is one with MK-82s on MERs and a Shrike:

 

https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/cv63-71/106.htm

 

a mix of TP and non-TP bombs:

 

https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/cv63-71/049.htm

 

https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/cv63-71/107.htm

 

Jari

[Finn]

Shrike and CBUs:

 

 

Jari

 

[lavony]

4 hours ago, Finn said:

Shrike and CBUs:

 

 

Jari

 

 

Great !!!

exactly   what I was looking for 

saw this profile somewhere, and here’s the proof...

yossi

[habu2]

7 hours ago, Finn said:

Shrike and CBUs:

 

 

 Note that is an A-7A/B vs E and looks like Mk.8x GPBs vs CBUs

[Rex]

Those are the early SUU-30 based CBUs, like the ones in the Hasegawa weapons sets.

 

They are the same ones carried during Vietnam cruises by Skyhawks for years, before the Mk 20 Rockeye based CBUs took over.

 

(close ups of those CBU photos over those years show us the horizontal split in the weapon)

Edited July 5, 2018 by Rex

[Finn]

Here is an A-7A/B with Shrike and Rockeyes:

 

 

Jari

[Collin]

8 hours ago, Finn said:

Here is an A-7A/B with Shrike and Rockeyes:

 

 

Jari

That is a most excellent shot.  Great weathering ref for the touch up paint on all the panel fastners.

Keep em coming.

Cheers

Collin

[Finn]

Mk-82, Shrike and Rockeye, plus an AIM-9:

 

 

Jari

[Whiskey]

[Finn]

A A-7A/B with 4 Shrikes and Rockeye(s) about to launch:

 

 

Jari

[Mstor]

13 hours ago, Finn said:

A A-7A/B with 4 Shrikes and Rockeye(s) about to launch:

 

Jari

 

Does someone make decals for this aircraft? I never considered doing an A-7 before, but the pic with 4 Shrikes and the shark mouth markings is just too cool looking to pass up.

[picknpluck]

Testors 1/72 A-7 (Fujimi plastic) has these decals. And VA-192.