The AN/ALE-47 Countermeasures Dispenser system is a defensive system fitted to many current military aircraft. It is used to dispense flares or chaff or both to counter the tracking systems of incoming missiles and has been in use since the mid-to-early 2000’s by the United States and many other countries.

This set from Brengun provides the chaff/flare dispenser portion of the AN/ALE-47 system in two different versions. One version has round dispenser holes, while the other version has more oval holes. There are three identical castings, each with 10 dispensers on it. There are seven dispensers with round holes and three with oval holes on each casting. The various dispensers depict different load outs from completely empty to completely full.

Since there are two versions of the dispenser, the first step will be to determine which is correct for the aircraft you are building. As one of the kits I had under construction at the time was a Hasegawa F/A-18A, I decided to use it as my demo kit. After reviewing a lot of photographs (this is not a popular item for photographs) I found one that showed the Hornet with the dispenser with oval holes and since I was going to build the jet without ordinance, I decided to install two empty dispensers with oval holes.

Once you have determined which shape is appropriate and what load out you want to depict, you will need to check your references to determine exactly where the dispensers are located on the aircraft as this will determine how thick or thin to cut your dispensers. On the Hornet, they are located on the underside of the engine trunks forward of the main gear, so I chain-drilled out the blank squares on the kit that represent the dispensers, cleaned up and squared off the sides of the holes with files before test fitting the dispensers I had selected. The casting blocks under the dispensers are pretty tall, so there is a lot of leeway as to how much of the casting block you remove. I left too much on the first dispenser as when I inserted it into the hole I had made, it protruded into the inside of the engine intake a fair amount, so I ended up sawing off a big portion of the remaining casting block in order to get the dispenser more or less flush with the inside of the intake. Once I was satisfied with the fit, I superglued both dispensers in place and used Mr. Surfacer to blend them into the bottom fuselage.

This is a nice set by Brengun, and not only are the dispensers a significant improvement over using decals to represent them, but since there are 30 dispensers in the set, you can outfit quite a few kits with just one set.

Recommended.

Thank you to Brengun for the review sample.