The Gun Counter

So the US Navy has a video of F-18's launching off the USS Harry S. Truman on their facebook page to go hit ISIS targets in Syria... What I am curious about is why they would be launching with only one of their wing tip rails having a missile on them? From what I can tell every launch they have either the left or right wing with a missile but the other one is empty... Any idea why that would be?

https://www.facebook.com/USNavy/videos/ ... 605567823/

My Naval Aviation experience is with P-3C's, but I'd guess it's a combination of limited air-to-air threat expectation and weight savings for other ordnance.

I expect one missile per airplane is more than enough to start WWIII with Russia if things go sideways over there.

Echo's of Vietnam. Missile (bomb) shortage? We ain't got no missile (bomb) shortage.

Steamforger wrote:My Naval Aviation experience is with P-3C's, but I'd guess it's a combination of limited air-to-air threat expectation and weight savings for other ordnance.

yeah mostly that. Of course, given current "hollow state" of affairs it could be some of those are failing release control checks.