Stores Management System

Stores Management System
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Cockpit art courtesy of Cockpits.nl

The Stores Management System (SMS) MFD is the MFD page used to manage the weapons and other supplies attached to your airplane. The pilot uses the SMS to program the selected weapon for each master mode, load stores into the inventory (tell the airplane what stores are loaded), enter weapon release data, activate loaded weapons, monitor weapons load and status, and control selective jettison. In Falcon 4, your stores are pre-programmed into the SMS based on your mission flight plan, and the pilot typically uses the SMS primarily to monitor weapons load and status and activate loaded weapons, i.e., missile tuning, missile cooling, etc.

Basic Operation

The SMS page has many subpages, depending on the master mode of the aircraft and the currently selected weapon. Weapon-specific SMS pages are discussed on the page for the weapon in question. This page only discusses the SMS pages which are common to all modes.

Inventory Page

The INV page displays what stores are loaded on the airplane. Loadable stations are displayed in numerical order 1 through 9 clockwise from the lower left corner clockwise to the right lower corner. Stations 1 through 4 are the left wing stations, Station 5 is the center station, and Stations 6 through 9 are the right wing stations. Racks and weapons are displayed at the appropriate station in the sequence in which they are loaded. Unloaded stations are displayed with dashed lines.

SMS Inventory Page
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As you can see, the INV page shows the quantity and type of munition located at each station. Each station has up to three lines, which display the equipment loaded at that station, and how it is mounted. Abbreviations are used to fit the maximum amount of of information into a combined space - the table below summarizes some of the more common ones.

Abbreviation Description
A-120A/B/C AIM-120 AMRAAM. The letter denotes the missile version.
A-7 AIM-7 Sparrow missile.
A-9LM/NP/X AIM-9M Sidewinder missile. The letter denotes the missile version.
AG65B/D/G AGM-65 Maverick missile. The letter denotes the missile version.
AG88 AGM-88 HARM.
LNCH Missile launcher rack.
MAU Miscellaneous Armament Unit, a type of mounting rack used with various weapon systems.
RCKT Rocket launcher pod.
RPOD Reconnaissance pod.
TER Triple Ejection Rack, a rack used to mount multiple bombs at a single station.
TK300 300-gallon fuel tank.
TK370 370-gallon fuel tank.
TK600 600-gallon fuel tank.

The total cannon ammunition you have (in multiples of 10) is displayed in the top left of the screen. 51GUN means you have 510 rounds left. The type of cannon ammunition you have loaded is displayed immediately beneath the quantity - in the F-16, this should always read PGU28.

The inventory page is selected by default when you enter the SMS page with no master mode selected. If you have an A-A or A-G mode selected, you will see the SMS page for the currently selected weapon. If you want to return to the INV page, you can press OSB 4 (second from the right on the top row), which takes you back to the default page.

Selective Jettison

To enter selective jettison mode, press the S-J OSB at the bottom right of the INV screen. The selective jettison page looks just like the inventory page, except that you can press the OSB next to each station to select that station to be jettisoned (notice that you cannot select all stations - specifically, your wingtip stores cannot be jettisoned). The procedure to jettison stores is…

  1. Select the SMS MFD page.
  2. Press the S-J OSB in the bottom right corner.
  3. Select the items you wish to jettison by pressing the OSB next to the station. The station will be highlighted when it is selected.
  4. Set the master arm switch to ARM.
  5. Press and hold the weapon release button on the HOTAS for at least one second. This will jettison the stores.

You can "pre-select" items to be jettisoned by selecting them in the S-J page and then leaving the page. When you return to the S-J page, your previous selections will still be active. It is good practice to pre-select fuel tanks and bombs at the beginning of a flight, so that you can jettison them in a hurry if you need to.

You cannot normally jettison your stores while the aircraft is on the ground. In order to accomplish this, you need to enable ground jettisoning by flipping a switch on the front left console. There is not much reason to do this in Falcon 4, however.

Ground Jettison Enable
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Cockpit art courtesy of Cockpits.nl

Emergency Jettison

In an emergency you don't usually have time to mess with the selective jettison function. The F-16 has a single, one-press button which automatically drops all of your fuel tanks and A-G stores. To activate this function, press and hold the emergency jettison button (next to the landing gear handle) for at least one second. You should do this only in an emergency (you can't get your fuel back once it's dropped!)

Emergency Jettison
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Cockpit art courtesy of Cockpits.nl
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