This is a follow up question I had about building an aircraft, mostly jets, armed and tanked to the gills. To be honest I’ve been shopping kits more than building of late. I plan on starting something tomorrow, I promise. But I got to noticing that some aircraft are almost unrecognizable without a full load. I was looking at one kit box art and was asking myself, “is that a trainer?”. Funny isn’t it?
Hopefully those almost unrecognizable ones look a lot different than the planes belonging to the foe 
Not to sure I can tell A and B models of fighter planes apart on sight.
More often than not many jet aircraft have a twin seat trainer with a smaller nose without a radar, supposing it is a trainer aircraft, most modern aircraft won’t go out with a full weapons load, probably because of the cost of the weapons in the first place, and the fact that just the aircraft itself even without weapons is deterrent enough to do the job. I can say the RAF in Afghanistan flew Harriers over Taliban to get rid even though they were not attacking or even armed it was often enough, the same as the Foxbat in the USSR, many patrols were unarmed as the presence alone was enough to deterr any intruders. I cannot comment on USAF jets as I have no idea but I would guess that in modern warfare the only aircraft you’re likely to see fully armed will be attackers.
This is really situationally dependent. If an aircraft has to travel a large distance to perform the mission ordnance will often be traded for fuel tanks (depending upon tanker support).
At home, usually a missile or two will be on the aircraft (usually a sidewinder on the wingtip) and just fuel tanks when conducting training missions. For helos, again it depends on the mission, but not uncommon to see nothing (missiles, door gun, torpedo) for certain aircraft. For a true bomber it can’t really do anything other than drop bombs or train, so the ordnance load depends there (then you get into internal bays, etc.). For electronic aircraft, they may or may not need ordnance to conduct their missions, such as the E/A-6Bs that were used to jam cell phone signals in Iraq to keep IEDs from going off.
Groot
I started working at RAF Lakenheath a few months ago and was surprised to see that all the aircraft are always carrying something. I think the only time I have seen an aircraft with nothing underslung is when in a hanger under repair. When they are parked up they always have drop tanks fitted and there are usually AAM’s on board at least, whether these are dummy or real I can’t always be sure, but there is always something there.
The fighter planes are loaded up depending on the mission. Just about every generation 4 and 4.5 fighter needs to carry drop tanks. Also being heavily loaded lowers your top speed, reduces maneuverability and reduces range.
Another thought in the event you build USN fighters, post Forrestal fire (Vietnam era) the Navy changed policy and no longer keeps armed aircraft on deck. So if you are doing a parked bird, it would only be loaded up right before a mission. Korea and prior it was not uncommon to see them loaded for whatever mission the flight schedule had them lined up for. No clue about USAF but many other Navies copied the USN’s policy.
Groot
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