Weapon container
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A weapon container is a container for aircraft in which various weapons can be installed. Depending on the type of weapon, the weapon containers are then specified as machine-gun , cannon or rocket containers . Arming with torpedoes is also possible. Weapon containers are used in military aircraft to increase the firepower or to reinforce the on-board armament.
The weapon containers have the advantage of being able to easily mount and dismantle them on the aircraft depending on the combat mission and required armament. For this purpose, these containers are attached to the load carrier stations of the aircraft in the same way as a drop weapon.
Weapon containers of this kind were used increasingly during the Second World War. In the course of the war, the German fighter pilots in particular were forced to adapt the armament of their fighter planes to the threat posed by incoming bomber formations, and consequently to strengthen them, both in terms of number and caliber of armament. Weapon containers were also used in ground attack aircraft, for example the WB 81 weapon container . This was equipped with three double-barreled MG 81 Zs firing forward or diagonally downwards in order to maintain fire on the target in low-level flight both on the approach and during the overflight.
After the Second World War, firearms were more and more replaced by missiles in combat aircraft, which meant that weapon containers initially only played a subordinate role. When it became apparent during the Vietnam War that aerial battles between aircraft were often decided in curve combat due to unreliable guided weapons , aircraft types without cannon armament, such as the first series of the F-4 , were equipped with weapon containers (SUU-16 / A) and new types to accommodate Guns laid out.
In military helicopters , weapon containers are successfully used in order to equip types that are not exclusively designed as combat helicopters (such as the UH-1 ) for use in fire support. In this case, both weapon containers with guns and those with light missiles ( FFAR ) or automatic grenade launchers are used.
Weapon containers are part of the structural armament of combat helicopters.
literature
Heinz J. Nowarra : The German Air Armament 1933-1945. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1993, ISBN 9783763754649 , pp. 131, 169.
