F-104S final 9 ship fly-by at Pratica di Mare AB May 30, 2004

The "new" F-104 was called S because it was designed to carry and fire the AIM-7E Sparrow BVR missiles.
By the way, two main versions of the F-104S were finally made: the interceptor variant (CI) and the strike variant (CB).

The F-104S/CB had the FIAR/NASARR R21G-H radar and a radar altimeter for low lever strike missions, it kept the Vulcan M61A1 gun
as its only air to air weapon and also had an additional internal fuel tank with a capacity of 462 liters.
The F-104S/CB had a total of 9 pylons and was theoretically able to carry a wide range of external stores.
By the way the tip were always used for the tanks as well the inner under wing pylons.
Ventral pylons at "butter line 22" were rarely used, almost only for display purpose, so bombs went more often to outboard wing pylons and to the center-line station.
The most seen configuration for this variant was with 2 or 4 tanks and a SUU-21 bomblet dispenser to the center-line station.
by Pierpaolo Maglio

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