A-10 Ordnance loadout - help!

This is what I've got. You can do a Google image search for "A-10 Thunderbolt II loadout" and you will find several pictures of actual aircraft. 

There's really is no such thing as to a "standard" ordnance load for aircraft now a days, ordnance loads are dictated by mission. Since modern aircraft can carry such a wide variety of ordnance and configurations it's hard to pin down what a "standard" load out would be. The best option is to find some refernce of the aircraft and folllow that. Sorry this is not much help but it may explain why "standard" ordnance load questions are hard to answer sometimes.

Reddog 

Yep as Reddog said mate, loadouts are mission-specific these days. My advice would be track down a pic of a chosen plane in a chosen AO & go with that. The A-10 is one of the few a/c left in the arsenal that is cleared for just about any duty the Air Force want to throw at it - tank-buster, bunker-buster, CAS, ground-attack. If you're stuck, just throw some GBU's & CBU's on it - how wrong could you be?

Lt. Rasczak;

First question, what style of paint scheme are you doing?

If it's Euro 1 Scheme then, Mk. 82's and CBU's are the main weapon of choice and high lighted by AGM-64's (these could be on the 3 rail launcher or single rail systems)

If it's the current Ghost scheme (OEF or OIF), here is the break down of what the 442 FW flew during OIF;

Station 1: ALQ-119 ECM pod (after 1 May 2003 this was remove because the Allies had Air & Ground Superiority), Station 2: LUU-17 (7 folding fin rockets w/ White Phosphorus), Station 3: 1 AGM-64G (IR), Station 4: 1 Mk. 84 500 lbs bomb (after May 1 2003 this station was empty), Station 5: 1 Mk. 84 Bomb, Station 6: empty, Station 7: 1 Mk. 84 or GBU-12, Station 8: see Station 4, Station 9: LITENING II pod, Station 10, LLU-14 (8 IR flares), Station 11: empty.

The 442 FW & 926 FW weapons load for OEF was almost the same except for stations 4,8,9 & 10. Stations 4 & 8 just carried Mk.84's the whole time, station 9 carried a AGM-64, and station 10 was the same as station 2, station 1 & 11 where left empty because there where no A to A threats in Afghanistan

I hope this would help you out, if you have any questions just drop me a line I worked the HAWG's for the 442 FW out of Whiteman AFB MO during OEF & OIF (Oct 2000 to Jul 2004)

 

Cuda,

Don't you mean Mk 82's and AGM-65's. The Mk 84 is a 2000 lbs GP Bomb and the AGM-64 never made it into production.

Reddog

I'm an ammo troop in the AF and I can say the A-10 flies a lot of munitions. The most common configuration i see is 6-Mk-82's, 2 to 4 rocket launchers, 2 AIM-9 missiles, 2 AGM-65 missiles. As far as what stations they load them on, i don't know, i don't load the munitions, i just build them.

Thanks for all your help, guys! I've done some research, and found a picture of the exact plane represented by my kit (it's the Academy OIF A10-A, btw). Between the kit ordinance and Hasegawa weapons sets, I've got all the ordinance I need EXCEPT the rocket launchers. The launchers in the Hasegawa set #1 don't look right. Any advice on where to find these launchers? They are mounted on stations 2 & 10, which, according to Chopper's diagram, would have to make them LAU-131's, right?

I would say any 7 shot rocket launcher would do, in 1/72 scale there isn't that noticable differences in the LAU-131/LAU-68. There are LAU-131/LAU-68's in the 1/72 scale Testors/Italeri US/NATO Armament set.

Reddog

Reddog;

yeah, my bad the bombs are MK. 85's but the AGM-64G Maverick's are correct, but for any OEF & OIF A-10 flights are NOT CARRYING any ALQ Jamming Pods or any AIM-9's because there is no Air to Air or Ground to Air threats that require the specializied equipment. So just 4 Mk.85's, 2 AGM-64's, 2 7 2.75 FF rocket pods (a very close rocket pod is the ones off the ESCI UH-1D Huey's both in 1/48 & 1/72 scales and the Revell UH-1D for 1/32 scale) and you'll be correct for most of the A-10's that are in the AOR, but there are others that carried SPECIAL loads that where flown in OIF like 1 GBU-12 and a LITENING II pod