So I’m just about finishing up an Ah-64 for a friend (the atrocious Revellogram kit) and I’m trying to determine proper placement for the weapons. From what I can see, the rocket pods or Hellfire missiles can go either inboard or outboard…but I’m seeing the rocket pods most often in the outboard position (and thus the Hellfires are inboard).
Anyone have first-hand experience with these birds who can give me the real deal?
All examples of the real aircraft that I have seen have the Hellfire racks inboard.
Thanks, Matt! That’s what I’ll do then. [:D]
John,
More often than not, rockets are outboard and Hellfires are inboard. BUT I do have a number of pics with outboard Hellfires, all rocket pods, all Hellfires, and even 3 Hellfire racks and one rocket pod! Since you’re building an A model, I’d go with the rockets outboard, since it is the most common, but don’t let that stop you!
According to this, rockets aren’t allowed to be fired from inboard. I saw this link a long time ago when I was doing research for my Longbow…
hmmm… AH-64D 99-5135, the bird downed on the Karbala raid from 1-227 had an odd weapons loadout. Left outboard station had Hellfires, inboard had rockets, right inboard had Hellfires and outboard had rockets. I’ve also seen 1-211th birds in Afghanistan carrying a “heavy hog” configuration of four rocket pods, so I think fas.org may have some dated material there.
Very interesting, thanks for posting that! I use globalsecurity.org for a lot of my research; looks like they share the same data source.
And yet on that same page are the following images…
[%-)] I agree with the idea that FAS’s info is a little old
Hey-
I don’t know for sure, but if I had to guess based on experience with Cobras, I bet that rocket pods are allowed on either inboard or outboard stations but preferred on the outboards. I know that the AH-64 has had problems in the past with smoke ingestion into the inlets from rockets. Not good for the drive system, and outboard stations should be a little better. Just look at the pic in the last post, rockets make a lot of smoke!
Phil
Gents,
If you are still wondering about what goes inboard and what goes outboard, this is the deal. Until about five years ago, it was immaterial. Then we started having problems with rockets leaving debris in the stabilator as well as too many rockets being launched at once causing the engines to stall slightly. Resultant, the Army came out with a message that directed that rockets will only be fired from the outside pylons. That message is still in effect and was in effect starting about 99 or 2000.
I haven’t seen pics of the 1-227 Avn A/H shot down vic. Karbala, but if it had three rocket pods, then that was a descision probably made by a local commander that was not in accordance with messages and Department of the Army Messages. It might have been since the unit was at war, and the on site commander felt the need to have more rockets on board, that he conciously hung them that way. That would be an exception and not the rule - as a matter of fact the only time I have heard or seen it in the last five years.
Prior to the message coming out, a lot of folks fought the aircraft with missiles outboard, one rocket pod right side inboard and an aux fuel cell left side in board. No one flys aux tanks now, except internal aux tanks. That was back in the days of “Hellfire Heavy”. If you were building a kit for Desert Storm, that would be a good configuration. If you were building an OEF or OIF kit, the two rocket pods outboard, two Hellfire racks inboard would be the most accurate.
If you have any other AH-64 type questions shoot a note to me at Randallihaws@cs.com.
Good luck and hope this might help folks in the future.
RIH
Randall,
Some of the photos of 1/211th AH-64As in Afghanistan have them carrying full “Heavy Hog” configuration with four 19-shot pods. The majority of Apaches I’ve got pics of from Iraq have the standard Hellfire racks inboard and rockets outboard, although there have been some minor variations.
Our birds carry the standard outboard rockets and inboard Hellfires.
i love apache ah-64. what is the best Italeri or Revell?
Here are some shots of 99-5135 on the ground. You can see on the right wing that it is carrying the standard configuration, rockets outboard and RF Hellfires inboard.
You can see in this shot that the left wing configuration is different, having Hellfires outboard. I can’t find the photo right now, but I do have one showing a cylindrical store on the ground under the wing. It MAY have been a fuel tank, but from what I could see I’m pretty sure it was a rocket pod, although I don’t know why it’d be outfitted like that.
Here’s the UTARNG A Model flying support for Marines in Afghanistan. She’s configured Heavy Hog.
