Ground Pounders

Most of the missions of the ACCAP request for government proposal require bombing a ground target. The flight of four fighterbombers are opposed by hostile fighters and SAM's. The jets have to bring enough fuel to finish the entire mission. Suffice to say that payload capacity and clever loadouts are paramount.

Belgian F-16AM's have flown a lot of missions in the past years. They usually fly in a similar configuration. They normally carry 2-4 air-to-air missiles, AIM-9's and AIM-120's. Unlike the Polish F-16C 52+ variant, Belgian jets can't carry conformal fuel tanks. So our jets fly with two drop tanks as well as a targeting pod and an  AN/ALQ-131  ECM pod on the central station. This leaves room 

for two bombs, either laser-guided Paveways or gps-guided JDAM's.

In this article I will examine several loadouts for the four remaining fighters. I will follow these criteria:
1) The fighters need to carry a decent amount of fuel internally or in droptanks.
2) They need at least four A2A missiles for self-defense.
3) They must be equipped with a targeting system.
4) They will have the maximum amount of bombs without the use of multiple ejector racks.

Rafale

The Rafale C is an excellent air-to-ground platform. It comes with fourteen hardpoints. Two of them are for pods only. A fully equipped Rafale would have: 2 Mica IR, 4 Mica RF or Meteor missiles, 2 fuel tanks, 4 bombs and one or two pods.

The layout of the hardpoints on a Rafale are great. It has 5 wet fuel points. There are two special stations for pods. Mission planners have the option to take one central drop tank, two on the wings or three. The Rafale M has the option to serve in buddy refueling missions with 4 tanks and a central probe and drogue system.

Big weapons like the Storm Shadow ALCM can be fitted centrally or on the wings. It is possible to fit two drop tanks and two ALCM's on the wings at the same time.

Dassault is working on conformal fuel tanks. This will make it possbile to fit a pod + 2 CFT's + a central tank (or two wing tanks). Multiple ejector racks are already in use.

It is a versatile platform although it carries less fuel internally than the Typhoon and F-35A.
The French use most Paveway LGB's and the AASM Hammer. The popular JDAM's are not integrated yet.

Eurofighter Typhoon

The Typhoon is an air superiority fighter, but it has acquired decent air-to-ground capabilities in the past years. The largest loadout would be 2 IR missiles, 4 RF missiles, 1 pod, two tanks and 4 bombs on thirteen hardpoints. Similar as a Rafale. The Eurofighter can be equipped with most US weapons too.

There is a catch though. The Laser Designator pod can only fit on the central station. This takes up one of the three wet points. Also, the landing gear folds sideways into the wing. Long weapons like the Storm Shadow can't be fitted on the two points close to the body. They have to go on the wet points on the wing. While a Rafale C could take three drop tanks plus two ALCM's, a Typhoon could not.

Fortunately conformal fuel tanks are in development. They can alleviate this problem. But it will remain impossible to attain the optimal combination of 2 CFT's + pod + one central drop tank. It is not possible to fly with just one wing tank. The package has to be evenly balanced.

The Typhoon does carry a bit more fuel internally than the Rafale and the CFT's will be larger. IMHO the Typhoon is an A2A figher at heart. Multirole capability was added as an afterthought.

Gripen

The Gripen E carries more fuel than the old C version and it comes with two extra hardpoints. The maximum loadout would be 2 IR and 2 RF missiles, two tanks, a pod and three bombs. As you can see, less than the others. The Gripen E will have five wet points for tanks. But at most four could be used simultaniously. Also fitting four tanks leaves very few stations for ordnance.

So far I haven't seen any plans for CFT's. It can carry one bomb more than the F-16AM, but it doesn't have room for an external ECM pod.

Saab did a good job, improving the C model. But it can't fully compete with the bigger jets.

F-35A

I will assume for this article that it is more valuable to lose some stealth in order to carry more weapons. The F-35A can haul a pretty decent amount of ordnance. It also carries a lot more fuel internally than the other four.

At most an F-35 could carry 2 IR missiles, 4 RF missiles and four bombs. It has only ten harpoints. Less than the Typhoon and Rafale. However it has an internal targeting system and might not need the extra fuel.

Although if extra fuel is required, that the F-35A hits a brick wall. Lockheed Martin tester drop tanks a while ago. The tests were unsuccessful because of separation issues. No drop tanks nor CFT's for the time being. Even if drop tanks can be made available, they would still take up two of the scarce pylons. Plus only the wings have wet points, which means either two tanks or none. There will be no option to carry just one central tank.

Summary

The Gripen E is the tiniest of the lot. It can keep up with the F-16AM, but it is left behind by the others. 

The Typhoon, Rafale and F-35A are closely matched in terms of ordnance and payload. However the Rafale is dedefinitely the most versatile one. The other two have more restrictions with regard to loadouts. The layout of hardpoints on the French fighter is superb.

weapon	IR	RF	pod	fuel tanks	bombs	total hardpoints	total payload kg
Rafale	2	4	2	2	4	14	9500
Typhoon	2	4	1	2	4	13	7500
Gripen E	2	2	1	2	3	10	7200
F-35A	2	4	0	0	4	10	8160
F-16AM	2	2	2	2	2	10	7700