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ALQ-101 Version Differences


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Hello all,

 

I'm trying to wrap my head around the ALQ-101 and it's many versions. Specifically, I'm slowly acquiring pieces for a French Buccaneer build from Desert Storm, and it seems that they carried two of the pods; a vanilla -101, and a -101v10.

 

I see GT Resin makes a V1, V3, and V4 in quarter scale, but I can't seem to find anything clarifying the differences, or anything at all about the V10. I am wondering if the differences are subtle enough to alter one version into another.

 

What do we know?

 

Thanks!

 

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A suitable 1/48 Buccaneer-style pod is available from Flightpath:

https://www.djparkins.com/product.php?productid=18458

500an_alq-101-ecm_pod.jpg

 

There was, however, no such thing as a French Buccaneer - apart from the RN and the RAF, the only other air arm to ever use the type was the SAAF...

....by the time of Desert Storm, only the RAF was still operating Buccaneers routinely (the SAAF was in the process retiring theirs) - there's a good piece about the RAF aircraft becoming involved here:

https://www.flying-tigers.co.uk/2016/the-blackburn-buccaneer-in-operation-granby-century-wings-update/

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Sorry guys, midnight-shift brain caught me. I was getting two things I was looking at mixed up. I am planning on building a French Jaguar at the same time as the Buccaneer; the Buccaneer of course being British. It is for the Bucc that I need the ALQ-101s. Sorry about that!

 

 

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So with that clarification, I should note that I am looking at the DStorm website where I'm seeing two versions of the ALQ-101 being carried. Maybe the website is wrong, or maybe he is using shorthand on one side, but what he lists is ALQ-101(V)-10 on one outside wing station, and ALQ-101 on the other.

 

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RAF Buccaneers only carried one ECM pod on one wing during Op Granby and this was on the Stbd wing with a Sidewinder or LGB on the other. I have just looked on Dstorm.eu which is usually very reliable when it comes to detail such as weapons and I can see that this states the 2 types of ECM pod that you mention. As far as I can make out from info in books the Buccs carried a AN/ALQ-101(V)-10 ECM pod during Op Granby.

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Thanks Jabba!

 

So now the question becomes, what does the V10 look like compared to other versions. I'm inclined to go with Reskit, as was mentioned here, because their stuff always looks so good, but is theirs a V10?

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The major external fearures of each version are shown in the museum display @RichB63 posted above, including the (V)10.  The 101 probably has the widest variation of all US pods since there are short, long, with or w/o "gondola," and other more subtle differences.  For the Desert Storm/Operation Granby Buccaneers you want a long pod with gondola as per the Resikit and Flightpath examples posted above.

 

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On 4/5/2023 at 8:06 PM, Specter1075 said:

Ah I didn't notice V10 tucked in there. The gondola is the little bulge that hangs below in the middle of the older pods, and near the end on the V12?

Actually by "gondola" I was referring to the "underslung" tube section that runs most of the pod's length below the main body (vs. earlier versions with just a single cylinder).  If you think about the cross-section profile (very roughly speaking):

No gondola:  o

Godola:  8

 

The small bulged antenna appears on some sub-types of each variant, but not the (V)10 as you see above.

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