Even if the bomb used in the test did not contain any explosive, the F-35 test team made a new step towards operational status by conducting the program’s first guided weapon test on Edwards Air Force Base Precision Impact Range Area in California, on Oct. 29.
The Electro-Optical Targeting System, or EOTS, enabled the pilot to identify, track, designate and deliver the GBU-12 on target.
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
According to Reuters, one of two F-35 stealth fighters one their way to Nellis Air Force Base, where the first two aircraft were taken on charge by the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron last week, […]
F-35 fired its embedded gun at full capacity. The F-35 Integrated Test Force has just released an interesting video showing the 181 round gun burst of the 25 millimeter Gatling gun embedded in the F-35A’s […]
In a media briefing held inside the fuselage of the C-27J CSX62127, Finmeccanica group’s company Alenia Aermacchi has unveiled a few more details about the new gunship version of the Spartan launched by Alenia Aeronautica […]