The F-35 Lightning II Pax River Integrated Test Force conducted the first weapons separation test of an AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) from an F-35C.
On Mar. 23, during flight 180 over the NAVAIR Atlantic Test Ranges, Cmdr. Ted Dyckman, a U.S. Navy F-35 test pilot, dropped an inert JSOW from aircraft CF-05 assigned to the Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 of the F-35 Lightning II Pax River ITF joint team, aboard Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland.
The test marked the first non-Mk 80 series bomb ever released from an F-35 Lightning II and according to the Navy (highlight mine): “The JSOW safely separated from an internal weapons bay within the F-35C carrier variant, thereby maintaining the stealth characteristics of the aircraft. […] The team will release additional JSOWs throughout 2016. Working on the multi-phase testing of the F-35 Block 3F capabilities, are U.S. government, military and contractor personnel, and industry partners from Raytheon Systems Ltd.”
AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) is the name a family of low-cost, air-to-surface cruise missiles that employ an integrated GPS-INS system and thermal imaging IR seeker.
With an operational range of up to 130 km (when launched from high-altitude), the JSOW has been used in combat during Operation Desert Fox, Operation Southern Watch, NATO Operation Allied Force, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Bravo JSF Program! It’s only taken $500 billion dollars and 14 years of painful development to finally do what legacy US naval fighters have been doing for years.
Launch internal Jsow’s while maintaining a stealth profile? Hardly.
Not to mention that with sidewinders hanging off the wings it’s not all that stealthy. Thus defeating the main reason for it’s existence.
Even with two external sidewinders (and a gun/multi-mission pod for the B and C variants) is still far more stealthy than anything currently flying out there. The F-35A is reportedly more stealthy than the F-22 in terms of RCS. I can’t imagine having two external sidewinders would automatically make it “non stealthy”. An F-35 looking like this…
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–zRLGzq8p–/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/1337689717550829710.jpg
is FAR MORE STEALTHY than something like this…
http://www.military-today.com/aircraft/jas_39_gripen_l3.jpg
thanks for coming out.
eheh, firing at the F-35 / JSF program has become way too easy. The price tag, the delay, the trade-offs, the plagued testing are indeed unjustifiable by any standard.
Which legacy US naval fighter can carry a JSOW internally? And $500 billion spent? Source please.
So, we can assume you don’t know how plane development and cutting edge technology is developed?
I would hate to see yout personal finances if you think the JSF program has cost $500 billion. And of course we would not want to point out how long it took the Eurofighter or the Rafale to reach the same point.
Probably lost a lot of software dev time to dealing with sensor fusion drama such that fundamentals like weapon systems got delayed.
Wrong.
Those other planes, although the were capable of dropping the munitions, were unable to do so without being detected by radar. That may not seem like a big deal to you, but it certainly is to the pilots.
So, the button that opens the bay doors works
The hinges on same works.
Gravity works…..
Give it another 4 decades or so & they might have something to write home about!
“thereby maintaining the stealth characteristics of the aircraft”
Translation: the Lüneburg lenses are effective enough that even an open bay, and dropping an (inert) missile couldn’t enhance more the RCS.
mistake in the article the JSOW is not a cruise missile, its a guided glide bomb, it has no engine therefore is not a missile