Aircraft ordnance

The term is often used when describing the payload of air-to-ground weaponry that can be carried by the aircraft or the weight that has been dropped in combat.

Some aircraft types can carry a wide variety of ordnance – for example, the Fairchild AU-23 Peacemaker could use forward-firing gun pods, 500 and 250 pound bombs, napalm units, cluster bomb units, flares, rockets, smoke grenades and propaganda leaflet dispensers.

This can be a problem if weapons designed for high intensity conflict are carried on multiple missions in a long counter-insurgency campaign.

Guided ordnance, such as Precision-guided munitions (PGMs), use advanced technologies like GPS, infared, radar or laser tracking to precisely hit designated targets.

[3][4][5] Unguided ordnance, commonly known as "dumb bombs," lack guidance systems and rely on the aircraft’s release parameters to strike a target.

Grumman A-6 Intruder (A2F-1) attack aircraft displaying its weapons array, 1962
US Navy Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet multirole combat aircraft illustrating its array of weapons-type capabilities; All Hands magazine of the US Navy 1997
B-52H Stratofortress subsonic strategic bomber displaying its weapons array, 2006
Airman inspecting a Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) after being loaded onto an F-22 Raptor
A crew member of a British SS 'Z' Class airship about to throw a bomb from the rear cockpit of the gondola.