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A LONG-RANGE PRECISION BOMBER able to operate at night and in adverse weather, the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Strike Eagle is shown here in its camouflage colours carrying 10,000 additional pounds of fuel in twin conformal fuel tanks called FAST Packs, plus 22 Mk-22 500-pound bombs. Without sacrificing air-to-air weaponry, the Strike Eagle can carry more than 24,000 pounds of external ordnance. The modified Hughes APG-63 synthetic aperture radar sees, maps and displays in the cockpit mobile tactical targets more than 20 nautical miles away, even at night and during adverse weather conditions
Newsdesk – Military
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Hughes Upgrade Defender
Hughes Helicopters is on the wave of a great decade with established mass sales for the Defender I gunship and Model 300 and 500 civil helos. To cap it off, Hughes has unveiled their upgraded version of the capable Defender which is aptly named Defender II. The new attack helo features a Martin Marietta mast-mounted laser designator and sight (including night infrared capability), a 30 mm Hughes chain gun, two General Dynamics Stinger air-to-air missiles and the usual cargo of anti-armour TOW missiles. The Defender II is proficient in the anti-armour, anti-helo and utility roles. The aircraft also features a new four-bladed tail rotor which reduces noise by 50 per cent and is equipped with a special IR exhaust suppressor. The Defender II is still very much in the development stage and should be entering service in 1983.
Hercules’ Strakes Prove Effective:
In the March issue of AADR we carried a report in the Newsdesk on the possibility of reducing fuel consumption on the C-130 Hercules by fitting aerodynamic strakes below the tail assembly of that aircraft. Following a long series of tests carried out by Lockheed and the Warner Robins Air Logistics Centre it has been proven that the strakes can effectively reduce C-130 fuel usage by as much as 3 per cent. If the strakes were fitted to the 550 C130s currently in USAF inventory then that service could save as much as $9m a year on fuel costs – or nearly enough to buy a new Hercules each year. The fibreglass strakes are two metres long, 50 cm deep and 1 o cm wide and fit below the tail unit in the flat area just aft of the top of the loading ramp. The conversion is relatively inexpensive though, at time of writing, there was no official comment as to whether the USAF or RAAF were planning to equip their aircraft with strakes.
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