Armament Subsystems
The following text provides general information on
the aircraft armament subsystems and components.
WEAPON
SYSTEM.—The
weapon
system
consists of the equipment and accessories necessary for
loading, carrying, and releasing of kill and search
stores. There are two subsystems, the armament (kill
store) subsystem and the ordnance (search store)
subsystem. The armament system refers to carriage
and delivery of weapons or stores from the wing and
bomb bay stations.
The ordnance system refers to
equipment used for carriage and delivery of search
stores. A maximum of 8 bomb bay stations and 10
wing stations are available for carriage of weapons.
There are 48 unpressurized sonobuoy launch tubes
(SLT), 3 pressurized SLT, and 1 free-fall chute used
with the search store system (fig. 15-22).
BOMB BAY SYSTEM.—The bomb bay has a
maximum of eight stations available at one time. The
eight basic stations are arranged in two layers; odd
numbered stations in the upper layer and even
numbered
stations
in
the
lower
layer.
This
configuration limits the release of weapons from the
upper layer until the interfering weapon on the lower
level has been released. Bomb racks are attached to
removable pylons with two types of pylons (primary
pylon and 1,000- to 2,000-pound class store pylon).
Bomb rack installations are assigned a number or a
number followed by a letter (fig. 15-23).
BOMB BAY CONFIGURATION.—There are
four primary pylon assemblies (fig. 15-24) provided for
carrying a maximum of eight bomb bay stores. The
pylon consists of two BRU-12/A bomb racks (fig.
15-25) mounted between two pylon ends. There are
three
1,000-
or
2,000-pound
class
store
pylon
assemblies (fig. 15-26) provided for carrying a
maximum of three 1,000- or one 2,000-pound class
weapon. The pylon assembly consists of a BRU-14/A
bomb rack with mounting adapters on station 4C. The
Aero 1A adapters provide the BRU-14/A bomb rack
with 30-inch suspension and load capabilities. Figures
15-27 through 15-32 show the various wing stations
and bomb bay equipment configurations.
For more information on the P-3 aircraft, refer to
Airborne Weapons/Stores Loading Manual, NAVAIR
01-75PA-75.
15-23
Figure 15-23.—Bomb bay weapons stations.
