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The bomb bay or weapons bay on some military aircraft is a compartment to carry , usually in the aircraft's fuselage, with "bomb bay doors" which open at the bottom. The bomb bay doors are opened and the bombs are dropped when over the target or at a specified launching point.
Before the introduction of stealth technology, bomb bays were mostly used by dedicated bomber aircraft; in fighters and attack airplanes bombs and were hung from the wings or fuselage on pylons. Notable exceptions are the F-101, F-102 and F-106 interceptor aircraft, all of which had bays used to store missiles, or other weapons stores. Today many designers have moved previously "external" stores into internal multifunction "weapons bays" capable of carrying air-to-air missiles, air-to-ground missiles, , and other military "stores" and deploying them rapidly in a battle. The principal reason for the change is to use stealth technology to make aircraft more difficult to detect on radar. Military fighters are now designed to have the smallest possible radar cross-section, which has decreased very substantially since attention was paid to this feature. Large racks of missiles and bombs hanging below the wings return very distinct radar signatures, which can be eliminated by bringing the weapons inside the fuselage. This also improves aerodynamic performance and increases the payload which can be carried and the range of the aircraft. Examples of modern U.S. fighters with weapon bays are the F-117 Nighthawk, F-22 Raptor, and F-35 Lightning II. These stealth aircraft such as the Chengdu J-20 use retractable guided missile launchers which move out on rails, allowing the weapons bay to be closed while the missiles still hang outside.
(frequently standoff missiles) are often carried in the bomb bays of modern aircraft; the missiles are dropped from the aircraft and then accelerate into autonomous flight while the bomber aircraft "stands off" at a safe distance from the target. There are multiple different bomb bay configurations, which can include:
These bomb racks may have special store release control mechanisms. Aside from the release options of a rack, a pilot can select release mode for releasing one or multiple stores. Stores can be jettisoned selectively in single mode or ripple mode or salvo mode. The term ripple applies to the single- or ripple and single-continuous release mode from one or from mirror stations. Salvo release mode applies to a combination of several stations together e.g. adjacent stations. For multiple store release, an interval timer can be set to release stores in fixed time steps. For an external store emergency release, there may be a panic button to release all of the weapons.
The disadvantage of a rotary launcher is a slow release of stores. The rotary launcher of the B-1 for example requires seven seconds until the next store is rotated into release position.
An example of the concept is the Common Strategic Rotary Launcher, which was introduced in the 1980s on the B-52 and B-1B to carry the AGM-69 and AGM-86.
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