In fight rearming system

www.strategypage.com...

Apparently the air force has developed a system that would allow an aircraft like a C-130 to rearm another aircraft in flight...

Thats some kick butt stuff... Now make a uav version of a resupply(fuel/arms) aircraft for ucavs and you have a very scary unamned airforce... no need for foreign air strips or very little need...

Ohhh, I tell you what, that makes me drooool.

But could you imagine how bulky it would be? Fuel it a liquid, it can fit thought thin tubes. Bullets and particularly are bulky and delicate, plus you have got to actually get them properly onto the hard points and whatnot. Apparently, a precision alignment and movement system would be used to do this. A what? Reading those words, I imagine some sort of robot arm sprouting out the sdie of the airplane.

But as the bottom of the article states, this would most likely be used for bombers, with internal bomb bays, where this sort of system could be applied with much more ease than trying to move stuff around externally.

HMM , a very interesting concept , i would love to see how they actually hope to do it

realoading " traditional " weapon stations with multiple mointings branching from a single pylon would be time consuming , dangerous and imptactical

i kknow this is a helicopter , but it shows the princuple best :



my guess would be a redesigned " hot shoe " type interface like this :



it would have angled duide ramps to aid allignment . and be fitted with pre loaded pylons beeing used to replenish an entire wing @ once -- with the old weapon carriers simply being pushed off the rails as the new onse are guided on

electical contacts etc -- would be either wireless datalinks or brush contacts [ spring loaded ]

as for rearming bombers -- IMHO , a variation on current semi automatic replenishment systems used on tanks / artillery peices would work

the german panzerhowitzer2000 uses a chute to feed shells into an automatic magazine

iw would require a totally different bomb hanfling system in the bomb bay -- but its certaility do able

question is -- is it really efficient -- you have to send out a replenishment aircraft , wht not just rorate strike platforms on station ??

or use a huge c-5 as a " super bomber " -- carrying massive quantaties of stand off munitions that can be dropped / lauched from beyond the range of air defences - and hidden behind fighter screens

RELOADING cannon is posible -- in theory -- just use an extended version of this :



my biggest concern is the wieght of ordnance and the lengh of the boom required -- having a 500kg bomb being rolled down a 5m chute to the target aircfat will require a very strong boom and have serious CoG issues