Breaddy-Stack Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 I am in possession of the Two Bob's 'Fights On!' decals which represents a VMFA-312 F/A-18A+ in a splinter pattern from around 2004 (BuNo 163132). I was curious to know if it would be appropriate to equip this particular bird with JSOW. From my understanding the squadron was the first to drop them during Operation Southern Watch using F/A-18Cs. At some point some of those were traded in for A+ models for OIF. There aren't a whole lot of reference photos of hornets equipped with JSOW that I've been able to turn up. The Osprey Publishing book "US Marine Corps and RAAF Hornet Units of Operation Iraqi Freedom" shows a profile image of this aircraft armed with a JDAM so from what I gather it should be possible for JSOW to be carried right? Would this be a reasonable armament for 163132? I'm not entirely sure of the differences in A+ and C other than visual ones. Additionally, what targeting pod would carrier based Marine hornets around this time be equipped with? I know for land based squadrons the Nite Hawk was used during the invasion and the Litening was used shortly after in 2004. Was ATFLIR around at this point for carrier squadrons? Could an A+ even take ATFLIR or would they just carry Nite Hawk? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
karl h Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 In the Bert Kinzeys OIF book it says 253 JSOWs were expended and its operational with the F-18 C/D/E/F, no mention of the A there is a pic of them on the deck of CVN-72 maybe Dave Roof can chime in? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Breaddy-Stack Posted October 8, 2020 Author Share Posted October 8, 2020 Hmm that’s what I figured unfortunately. I thought they couldn’t use JDAM as well but the Osprey Publishing book might’ve just thrown those on for artwork purposes. I’ll try to find that picture of CVN-72 though. And yeah hopefully this thread captures Dave’s attention! I know he typically knows a lot about this stuff. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Joe Hegedus Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 A model Hornets were not compatible with MIL-STD-1760 weapons (like JDAM, JSOW, AMRAAM). The A+ upgrade added this capability, so an FA-18A+ would be capable of using JDAM or JSOW. Whether they did or not is a separate question. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Breaddy-Stack Posted October 8, 2020 Author Share Posted October 8, 2020 Oh perfect! As for whether they did or not, is that information even available outside tracking down someone from 312? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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