G limits on F-15 and F-16

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Are the F-15 and F-16 capable of 9 G even when fully loaded with fuel and offensive ordanance ? or does the G limit decrease ?

Original post

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Are the F-15 and F-16 capable of 9 G even when fully loaded with fuel and offensive ordanance ? or does the G limit decrease ?

Without any wet bags(DT) they should do 9G, and without larger ordinance. It would have to be 2*2 A2A missiles for F-16 and six missile for F-15.

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F-16 and F-15E are 9 G clean.
F-15A&C are 7.3 G clean.

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How come the E-model can do 9G while the lighter A/C-models can only do 7.3? It would seem the other way around to me.

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The E has a strengthened airframe and several different manufacturing techniques compared to the A/B/C/D, and don't forget, the C/D models are getting rather long in the tooth now...

-Dazza

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Without OWS, all F-15 variants are limited to 7,33Gs when clean, dropping to mere 3Gs on extreme 80000 pound asymetric payloads.

However as such limits are always put thinking the worst possible structural loads, there is OWS, which expands the G limits. To clarify with an example.

At 37k lb, a clean F-15C is limited to 7,33Gs without OWS, computer will log anything above as overstressed airframe.
With OWS, computer will continiously vary G limits accordingly to speed/altitude/weight; same aircraft at sea level is allowed to pull 9Gs, however at 20k feet, transonic regime it is still limited to 7,33Gs. Limit continiously varies and is shown in the Hud. at 85% and 92% of the allowable G, warnings are given. Legacy F-15As didnt have OWS, so they were limited to 7,33Gs. However in practice F-15 has no hard G limits, pilot can always pull harder to achieve higher Gs.

F-16 has no direct G limit with respect to payload weight or class but it has AOA limit (cat I/III), which in turn limits the amount of Gs pulled.

To answer the original question no; With decent payload and fuel, they are very unlikely to do 5+Gs let alone 9.

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To answer the original question no; With decent payload and fuel, they are very unlikely to do 5+Gs let alone 9.
^ thank you very informative

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SO in the offensive role lets say the F-16 are fully loaded with fuel and weapons and are going on a offensive strike missions are they to be provided with an fighter escort ? ( this is assuming a 80s era scenario pre-AIM-120AMRAAM)
otherwise even if they have to deal with inferior enemy fighetrs like mig-23/25/21 they will have to jettison their fuel and weapons and the interceptors will obtain a kind of mission kill, if they have escorts then there will be no need for that ?

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The g-limit is set to keep the warranty for a given life-time.

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SO in the offensive role lets say the F-16 are fully loaded with fuel and weapons and are going on a offensive strike missions are they to be provided with an fighter escort ? ( this is assuming a 80s era scenario pre-AIM-120AMRAAM)
otherwise even if they have to deal with inferior enemy fighetrs like mig-23/25/21 they will have to jettison their fuel and weapons and the interceptors will obtain a kind of mission kill, if they have escorts then there will be no need for that ?

Yes.
Also now is the same, even F-15E will have an escort, same happen with the Sukhois actually in Syria: it is not about missiles or radar, even the lightest A2G load impact heavily on performances and in every case they would need to fly quite low and slow to deliver their weapons with precision.
5gen with internal load only, could possibly being not affected but some limitations would remain the same.

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During the 80s was the f 15 able to target multiple aircraft with sparrow at the same time ?
Or it had to target one at a time with a SARH sparrow ?

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19 years 1 month

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Sorry for above refer to separate thread

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Without OWS, all F-15 variants are limited to 7,33Gs when clean, dropping to mere 3Gs on extreme 80000 pound asymetric payloads.

However as such limits are always put thinking the worst possible structural loads, there is OWS, which expands the G limits. To clarify with an example.

At 37k lb, a clean F-15C is limited to 7,33Gs without OWS, computer will log anything above as overstressed airframe.
With OWS, computer will continiously vary G limits accordingly to speed/altitude/weight; same aircraft at sea level is allowed to pull 9Gs, however at 20k feet, transonic regime it is still limited to 7,33Gs. Limit continiously varies and is shown in the Hud. at 85% and 92% of the allowable G, warnings are given. Legacy F-15As didnt have OWS, so they were limited to 7,33Gs. However in practice F-15 has no hard G limits, pilot can always pull harder to achieve higher Gs.

F-16 has no direct G limit with respect to payload weight or class but it has AOA limit (cat I/III), which in turn limits the amount of Gs pulled.

To answer the original question no; With decent payload and fuel, they are very unlikely to do 5+Gs let alone 9.

Thanks. What is the F-16s AoA limit? And that of the F-15?

"Lavi: The United States, Israel and a controversial fighter jet" book states that:


The maximum angle of attack limit for the F-16 is actually prescribed as a function of the airplane's g-load. At 1G conditions, the airplane is limited to 25 deg AoA. At around 7G conditions, however, the airplane's software limits the pilot to just over 20 deg AoA and at 9Gs, the airplane is limited to 15 deg AoA.

Gripen's max AoA is slightly higher, at 26 deg AoA. Similarly for the Tejas and the JF-17- yet these two jets are 8G limited whereas the Gripen is 9G.