Most of what a Hornet does is air-to-ground. When a loadout reflects this mission focus, it nonetheless typically includes a pair of wingtip-mounted Sidewinders for defensive purposes (however, F/A-18Ds in Desert Storm removed them when the Iraqi air-to-air threat was deemed to be non-existent). Five hardpoints (the four wing-mounted SUU-63s and the centerline) may be devoted to A/G ordnance. These fall into two main categories: unguided ("dumb") and guided ("smart") munitions.
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4.3.1 Unguided Munitions
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Unguided munitions take the form of Mk 80 series general purpose bombs (GPB), cluster bomb units (CBU) and rockets. The aircraft can employ up to 10/12 general purpose gravity or cluster bombs (on the four/six underwing pylons and centerline station) against a variety of targets from tank formations, naval targets and buildings to bridges, airfields and bunkers. Mk 82/83 GPBs and their derivatives are carried on twin-store vertical ejection racks (VER-2s). Mk 82, 83 and 84 "iron" bombs weigh respectively 500, 1,000 and 2,000 lbs (227, 454 and 909 kg) each.
