Drop Tanks

[Stick 773]

This may seem like a newbie question-but its been hounding me for quite a while now especially since Ive seen birds fly with them during combat exercises.

In combat what is Standard Procedure? Do you jettison tanks before firing a BVR missile or hang on to them until you are in the furball-the extra legs do really count especially on them long range missions.

[Viper6 3]

I drop them as soon as i get into sparrow range because very soon i'll need to be as light as possible

[Lt. James Cater 62]

It all depends.

 

I have in the past completed missions and never dropped tanks. Those occasions were intercepts where i knew i was not going to dogfight. Other than that i tend to wait until the range is noticibly close before punching them due to the desire to have every last bit of fuel before switching to internal tanks.

[triplethr3at 0]

Same here. I tend to keep them untill about 5 miles before a merge or even in the dogfight if i manage to enter it from an advantageouse angle.

[+ST0RM 145]

If I've got any fuel left in them, I'll light the burners for that extra push prior to a Sparrow or AMRAAM shot. I dump them after that.

 

-S

[DWCAce 19]

One of my prof's was an F-4 driver in SEA, and bunch of guys would punch 'em off at the first call of MiG's. The Wing commander said that the next crew to do that with out actually being engaged would court martialed.

[ezlead 42]

If you handfly to the target,the tanks should be almost or empty.

If you warp to the target,the tanks are still full(heavy).

It is pilot preference.

In Vietnam(1972),the fighter jocks that I knew would keep them on. By the time they got jumped the tanks would be empty and light or in burner they would empty pretty fast. The attack drivers mostly would keep them on. Either one,in the event of a gear failure,they could land on the tanks,saving the aircraft from major damage.

Most squadron SOP's were to keep them on.

If it was really necessary they would get rid of them.

[MigBuster 2,861]

Isreali Shahak pilots in the 6 day war seemed to have a policy of dropping them as soon as they got vectored to a target - although this was later changed to only jettison them when they were vectored to an actual bogey - due to waste - which shows its down to aircraft, pilot or orders.

 

In the case of an F-4 ive read USAF pilot accounts that the centerline tank had to go before AIM-7s could be used?

[Arkansascharlatan 0]

I think you're right about the centerline tank. When you consider the proximity of the sparrow on an F-4 configuration, releasing them prior a centerline punch would bring the trajectory dangerously close to the tank, and it's fuel.