Fw 190A-6/R11 – all weather and night fighter, with exhaust glare shields, landing light, autopilot device PKS 12 and heated windscreen windows.
Some planes mounted a FuG 217 Neptun J-2 radar. Generally, these planes used droppable fuel tanks mounted on the ETC 501 bomb rack.
The Fw190A-6 was essentially a Fw190A-5 airframe with greater strength added to the wing structure to accommodate the escalation in weight resulting from constant upgrading. Wing armament was improved by replacing the A-5’s drum fed 20mm outboard cannons with heavier belt fed 20 mm cannons with longer barrels. The wing root cannons and fuselage mounted machine guns remained unchanged.
The majority of A-6s were deployed in the West in Defence of the Reich missions against Allied bomber formations, with some finding their way to Nachtjäger (night fighter) units defending against nocturnal RAF bomber attacks. Some A-6 nachtjägers were equipped with FuG 217 Neptun radar (the R11 Rüstsätze, or field conversion) to help pilots locate bombers in the dark. During 1944 the single-engined night fighters were gradually replaced by twin-engine radar equipped aircraft like the Ju.88G and Bf110G.
FW 190 A-8/R2 Bomber-destroyer with two outboard MK 108 30 mm cannon
FW 190 A-8/R11 Dirty weather fighter with BMW 801 TU/TS ‘Dirty weather’ fighter with special radio and automatic pilot.
FW 190 A-8/R12 Combination of R2 and R11 with BMW 801 D-2
FW 190 A-9/R2 Bomber-destroyer with two outboard MK 108 30 mm cannon
FW 190 A-9/R11 Dirty weather fighter & BMW 801 TS ‘Dirty weather’ fighter with special radio and automatic pilot.
FW 190 A-9/R12 Combination of R2 and R11
FW 190 D-9/R11 Dirty weather fighter with FuG 125 VHF radio beacon receiver
FW 190 D-12/R11 Dirty weather fighter
FW 190 D-13/R11 Dirty weather fighter
R2: Addition of an MK 108 cannon pod mount under each wing (as fitted to the FW 190A-6 and A-8)
R2: Outboard wing mounted MK 108 cannon (as fitted to the FW 190A-7, A-8 and A-9)
R2: Addition of wing mounted MK 108 cannons and a fuselage center line mounted WGr (Werfer-Granate) 21 rocket (as fitted to the FW 190A-8)
R11: Addition of FuG 125 VHF radio beacon receiver, PKS 12 autopilot, and window heaters (as fitted to the FW 190A-8 and A-9) and D-series airframes (also used for the Ta 152).
R12: Addition of FuG 125 VHF radio beacon receiver, PKS 12 autopilot, window heaters and wing mounted MK 108 cannons (as fitted to the FW 190A-8)
FuG 125 – which is known as “Hermione” device was a VHF radio beacon receiver, the frequency range from 30 to 33.3 MHz was, the device weighed about 10 kg and had a range of 200 km
The PKS 12 was probably the world’s first operational autopilot for single-seater fighter aircraft and was envisaged to be used in all-weather interceptors. It was used operationally in versions of the Bf 109, Fw 190 and Ta 152 fighters (and probably tested on some other types as well).
