Interesting F-15 Payload

a reply to: Zaphod58

wonder what it needs to talk to with those fancy new comms

a reply to: penroc3

Fifth Gen. It's a Fifth to Fourth datalink so they can talk to F-22s and F-35s without adding Link-16 to them.

a reply to: Zaphod58

seems like a strange pay off. using a mount space for another pod. i would think the links would fit inside somewhere, but i guess the same thing could be said about the new gear.

a reply to: penroc3

They'd have to send each aircraft to the depot, tear into the airframe itself, remove some components to make room for the new system, add the new system, put it back together, and test it. It would be six months to a year per airframe, if they didn't find any problems like corrosion as they got under the skin.

There are 249 F-15s in the inventory. You'd have to have large numbers of them out of service at a time to do the upgrade.

originally posted by: Sammamishman

Page 3-32 of THIS doc.

The red tailed aircraft is a Edwards Air force base research aircraft and they run a lot of one of a kind test equipment.
the ED on the tail gives this away.
But what i don't understand is why this is a Navy photo(NAVAIR photo)

a reply to: ANNED

Because they work with Navy aircraft too. Sometimes they work at Naval facilities, and other times they work at Edwards.

a reply to: Zaphod58

You're gonna make me ask again, aren't you?

OK, fine...

Talon HATE? What is it, what does it do, is it even a real thing yet?

I hope you're happy now...

a reply to: seagull

IIRC The Talon Hate pod virtually mimics the F15 as an F22 allowing it to share targeting / situational awareness with other F22's, it can then share this info with the non-Talon Hate carrying aircraft via Link 16.

a reply to: seagull

The F-22 and the F-35 use what are essentially private datalinks. The rest of the Air Force uses the Link 16, which provides a lot of information to other aircraft but has the issue of being detectable by just about anything out there. So the F-22 and the F-35 use a low probability of intercept (LPI) datalink. Which is great for them remaining stealthy, but, and this is a doozy, it doesn't talk to anything but other F-22s and F-35s without an intermediary.

Initially that was the BACN, or Battlefield Airborne Communications Node. It's still used, but that adds another platform requirement to the fight, and it's usually a slow, high flying, vulnerable airframe. They were using the WB-57 at one point, as well as a Global Hawk.

Enter Talon HATE. Talon HATE is a fifth to fourth datalink conversion system. It removes the requirement for another airframe, since it's carried on the F-15. It converts the Link 16 used by pretty much everything, into a language that the F-22 and F-35 systems will be able to understand, and talks to them. So this way they can all share information without relying on the radio, or an intermediary.

Thanks, guys.

How does this effect the payload capacity of the F15?

a reply to: seagull

Not much. They'll lose about 4,000 pounds of fuel, which is about 600 gallons, because they can't put a fuel tank there anymore, but that's it.

a reply to: seagull

Any offset in payload will be well worth it and made up for with the extended data fusion and dissemination capabilities.

a reply to: justwanttofly

Oh, absolutely. Being able to at least pretend to be a fifth gen is going to be an advantage.

Even this less than knowledgeable nitwit can see that.

But until I learn these things from guys like you, Bfirez, and Zaph, I don't know enough to even opine.

It's a good thing I enjoy learning new stuff, because on forums like this, it's a given that I'm going to.

a reply to: seagull

The centerline pylon is normally either a fuel tank or jamming pod. The pod can be carried on another station, and the Air Force is looking into a Boeing proposal to activate the outboard wing stations that don't currently do anything. That would allow them to put more missiles, and use the inboard stations for other things.