Weapons question for military air people...

[seawasp]

When a missile or rocket is loaded onto an aircraft, I presume the launch rail/holder must have some kind of coupler to not only hold the weapon, but to activate it (set off the drive and, if it's a smart weapon, tell it "look there" or something to that effect).

When such weapons are loaded onto an aircraft, (A) would the act of connecting it trigger some sequence of recognition by the aircraft ("Hey, I've just got a new missile!")? (B) How long does an aircraft remain loaded? That is, is it standard practice for them to sit around with their missiles onboard, or are those only loaded prior to taking off on a flight where using them is considered normal? (C) Is there an event in which the missiles get "checked" when the aircraft prepares for takeoff (that is, is the missile control "pinged" by the aircraft systems to make sure it's active?)

Comments

What they said, yeah.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

The previous posters have already covered most of what I'd say without checking in with my USAF friends or shaking the internet to see what falls out. From memory, though:

A) Yes - and if it doesn't a bunch of non-flying technical work happens. This is for smart missiles and such, of course; a Vietnam-era rocket pod carried rather less elaborate electronics.

B) It depends, as said. Often the 'missiles' on a fighter are dummies, training units that don't actually fly away and go boom. (Mixing up dummies and live rounds is an embarrassing error that happens rarely - but more often than any air force wants to admit, since having the wrong thing loaded has no good results either way. Real effort is made to avoid this.) Another exception is the gun rounds; almost all fighter planes have a multi-barrel cannon, often in 20mm, and the plane is designed to handle well with the weight of the ammunition aboard.

C) As dsrtao said. The onboard electronics are supposed to tell the pilot "Yeah, I've got (1, 2, 3, 4) FOUR missiles aboard!" but nobody in their right mind is going to trust a computer on this, so an important part of the not-screwing-up protocol is for somebody to actually LOOK at the plane and see if what's bolted on underneath matches the paperwork.