(Israeli F-16 with conformal fuel tanks)
Just something captured from the Internet when considering conformal fuel tanks on any design. In this case the F-16. I knew one of them had to be pulled when you did gun maintenance but this is interesting:
I worked these for awhile in the UAE.The conformals are not difficult to remove and install, thing is they are ALWAYS coming off for maintenance. We had a "conformal crew" and that is pretty much all they did all day long, and we won't even talk about the secondary ECS system for the AN/APG 80 AESA radar. We have CFT's here in Oman on the block 50 but are not flying with them at the moment.
This could also be a consideration when looking at putting them on the Super Hornet design. Don't know what that impact would be on daily maintenance.
The F-15E conformals are slung low on the airframe. They also need to be pulled from time-to-time for various maintenance activity.
