Buccaneer S.2B

This page is about the strike aircraft Buccaneer S.2B. For other versions, see Buccaneer (Family).

Buccaneer S.2B

Buccaneer S.2B

Description

Following the defeat of the British forces during the Aden Emergency, and seeing other conflicts happening at that time near the Suez, the RAF (Royal Air Force) saw the need to update their anti-shipping capability vastly during the turn of the '70s. This saw the joint development of the AJ-168 Martel anti-ship missile between Britain and France. However, the problem of carrying it still existed and, strapped on budget and time, the RAF decided to simply modify a selection of their existing Buccaneer S.2 aircraft with the required avionics and data bus to use the AC-226 HS datalink pod, allowing for terminal "Man-in-the-loop" TV guidance for the Martel missiles. 49 of this new variant, called the Buccaneer S.2B, were built between 1973 and 1977, with three going to the Ministry of Defence for weapons trials and testing, and the rest (46) entering active service. While the Royal Navy's Buccaneers had a long and fruitful service life, the RAF's Buccaneer's sat collecting dust mostly for nearly two decades, with their most interesting deployment being to be on station in Germany to laser-designate targets in case the Cold War went hot. The RAF Buccaneers were seemingly finally going to face their trial by fire during the Gulf War in the early '90s, when 12 RAF Buccaneer S.2Bs were deployed at short notice to the Gulf during Operation 'Granby'. However, these Buccaneers' mission was only to laser designate targets for Royal Air Force Tornados and Jaguars, with almost no real strike missions flown by the Buccaneers.

The Buccaneer S.2B was introduced in Update "Alpha Strike". Being a direct upgrade to its predecessor in the tree, the Buccaneer S.2, the S.2B variant not only has access to the powerful AJ 168 Martel missiles, but various new hardware and avionics upgrades over the older S.2. For starters, the S.2B has access to built-in countermeasures and the all-aspect AIM-9L missile, a major upgrade over the external countermeasures pod and the AIM-9B of its predecessor. More importantly for a strike aircraft, the S.2B has access to the Pave Spike laser targeting pod alongside Paveway laser guided bombs, or alternatively, the AJ-168 Martel TV guided anti-ship missile, which due to its TV guidance, can also be used against ground targets in mixed ground battles, where it proves its potency thanks to having one of the highest TV lock ranges in-game and a very powerful warhead. Players must still be aware of the usual shortfalls of the Buccaneer family, being its large size and weight resulting in cumbersome flight performance, along with the lack of any built-in cannon armament.

General info

Flight performance

Describe how the aircraft behaves in the air. Speed, manoeuvrability, acceleration and allowable loads - these are the most important characteristics of the vehicle.

Characteristics	Max speed (km/h at _,___ m)		Max altitude (metres)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (metres/second)		Take-off run (metres)
	AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
Stock	___	___		__._	__._	__._	__._	___
Upgraded	___	___		__._	__._	__._	__._

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear	Drogue chute
_	_	_	_	_	_

Limits
Wings (km/h)	Gear (km/h)	Flaps (km/h)			Max Static G
		Combat	Take-off	Landing	+	-
		___	___	___	~__	~__

Optimal velocities (km/h)
Ailerons	Rudder	Elevators	Radiator
< ___	< ___	< ___	-

Engine performance

Engine			Aircraft mass
Engine name		Number	Basic mass		Wing loading (full fuel)
_____		_	_,___ kg		___ kg/m2
Engine characteristics			Mass with fuel (no weapons load)			Max Gross Weight
Weight (each)	Type		_m fuel	__m fuel	__m fuel
___ kg	___		_,___ kg	_,___ kg	_,___ kg	_,___ kg
Maximum engine thrust @ 0 m (RB/SB)			Thrust to weight ratio @ 0 m (___%/WEP)
Condition	100%	___%/WEP	_m fuel	__m fuel	__m fuel	MGW
Stationary	___ kgf	___ kgf	_.__	_.__	_.__	_.__
Optimal	___ kgf (_ km/h)	___ kgf (_ km/h)	_.__	_.__	_.__	_.__

Survivability and armour

Examine the survivability of the aircraft. Note how vulnerable the structure is and how secure the pilot is, whether the fuel tanks are armoured, etc. Describe the armour, if there is any, and also mention the vulnerability of other critical aircraft systems.

Armaments

Ballistic Computer
CCIP (Guns)	CCIP (Rockets)	CCIP (Bombs)	CCRP (Bombs)	EEGS

Offensive armament

The Buccaneer S.2B is armed with:

• A choice between two presets:
  • 30 x countermeasures
  • 90 x countermeasures

Suspended armament

The Buccaneer S.2B can be outfitted with the following ordnance:

	1	2	3	4	5
500 lb H.E. M.C. Mk.II bombs	6	6	4	6	6
540 lb Mk.M2 bombs	6	6	4	6	6
1,000 lb H.E. M.C. Mk.13 No.117 bombs	3	3	4	3	3
1,000 lb H.E. M.C. Mk.13 bombs	2, 3	2, 3	4	2, 3	2, 3
1,000 lb L.D H.E. M.C. Mk.1 bombs	2, 3	2, 3		2, 3	2, 3
546 kg Mk.13 bombs	1*	1*			1*
RP rockets	36	36		36	36
AIM-9G Sidewinder missiles	1				1
AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles	1				1
AJ.168 missiles	1†			1†	1†
Data link pod		1†
Pave Spike targeting pod				1*
440 gal drop tanks			1
* Pave Spike pod must be equipped when carrying Mk.13 guided bombs † Data link pod must be equipped when carrying AJ.168 missiles

Default weapon presets

24 x 500 lb H.E. M.C. Mk.II bombs + 1 x 440 gal drop tank (12,000 lb total) 2 x AIM-9G Sidewinder missiles 2 x AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles 144 x RP rockets 3 x AJ.168 missiles 28 x 500 lb H.E. M.C. Mk.II bombs (14,000 lb total) 28 x 540 lb Mk.M2 bombs (15,120 lb total) 12 x 1,000 lb H.E. M.C. Mk.13 bombs (12,000 lb total) 4 x 1,000 lb H.E. M.C. Mk.13 bombs + 8 x 1,000 lb L.D H.E. M.C. Mk.1 bombs (12,000 lb total) 16 x 1,000 lb H.E. M.C. Mk.13 No.117 bombs (16,000 lb total) 3 x 546 kg Mk.13 bombs (1,638 kg total)

Usage in battles

Describe the tactics of playing in the aircraft, the features of using aircraft in a team and advice on tactics. Refrain from creating a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view, but instead, give the reader food for thought. Examine the most dangerous enemies and give recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).

Pros and cons

Summarise and briefly evaluate the vehicle in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark its pros and cons in the bulleted list. Try not to use more than 6 points for each of the characteristics. Avoid using categorical definitions such as "bad", "good" and the like - use substitutions with softer forms such as "inadequate" and "effective".

Pros:

Cons:

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the aircraft in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.