The SAAF Forum

Hi all

What was the Cheetah C air to air load for air combat?

I presume it would be 2xBVR on outer pylon
2xIR in the inner pylon and a fuel tank on the center pylon?

Thanks

From memory, V3S IR missiles could only be carried on outboard wing stations (1 & 7). EM missiles (V4) could be carried on 1, 2, 6, and 7, but in practice (probably because V4 was a lot more expensive than V3S) the Air Combat load was V3S on 1 & 7, V4 on 2 & 6.

The armament system and aircraft wiring also supported V4 on the fuselage centerline station (4) but this was never cleared for flight, probably because of the risk of the engine ingesting missile rocket motor exhaust gas at launch.

Fuel tanks would depend on mission - none or fuselage centerline (station 4) or wing inboard stations (3 and 5) or stations 3, 4, 5.

Cool
Thank you for the response.