F-22 Raptor lateral weapons bay - GIF

[mklotz]

This is just conjecture, but it may have something to do with either the rocket exhaust or to mitigate a problem where the weapon wants to fly back into the aircraft after release.A spoiler of some sort. This happened on the A 26 bombers. The bomb wanted to fly back up into the bombay rack upon release. The problem was solved with spoilers that changed the turbulence in the weapons bay.

My thoughts exactly. I expected a thrust deflector to emerge from the doors.

A long time ago I helped write a precision bombing simulation that fully emulated the aerodynamics of the bomb as well as the launch aircraft. We knew we had it working correctly when a simulated bomb dropped from a simulated wing hanger actually gained lift as the plane moved away from it and then flew over the wing before starting its descent. We had seen videos of this happening on real aircraft and found it hard to believe.

We never examined the dynamics of powered ordnance, i.e. rockets, though. Still, with their initial launch power, I wouldn't expect them to be dangerously influenced by near aircraft aerodynamics (but, who knows?)

Thrust deflection to protect the launch aircraft seems likely though.