Photo of the F-35 dropping the Paveway IV (Photo: U.S. F-35 Program Office)
Posted on 06/19/2015 8:20:13 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
WASHINGTON — The F-35 Lightning II program made aviation history June 12 as Royal Air Force (RAF) Test Pilot Squadron Leader Andy Edgell released two inert 500-pound dual mode Paveway IV precision-guided bombs over the Atlantic Test Ranges, the U.S. Navy reported.
The inaugural weapons separation test of the Paveway IV conducted by the F-35 Lightning II Patuxent River, Md., Integrated Test Force (ITF) was a major milestone for the U.K. Royal Navy and RAF F-35 program. The test brought together the multi-role short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (STOVL) variant of the F-35 fifth-generation stealth fighter and the Paveway IV — an advanced weapon that equips the Royal Navy and RAF with a state-of-the-art, all-weather Inertial Navigation- and Global Positioning System-guided bombing capability, the first dual-mode bomb operational on the F-35 Lightning II.
The inert bombs safely separated from an internal weapons bay within the F-35B, thereby maintaining the stealth characteristics of the aircraft and furthering the collaborative approach of the U.S. and U.K. in the development of the F-35 Lightning II.
The U.K. is the only Level 1 partner with the United States on the joint, multinational acquisition to develop and field an affordable, highly common family of next-generation strike fighter aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and eight international partners. Its major role in the F-35’s System Design and Demonstration phase is enabling the regeneration of the U.K. Carrier Strike capability, which will result in significant contracts and jobs for U.K. industry as the F-35B Lightning II and Typhoon become the U.K.’s Fast Jet Combat Air Elements of the future.
The primary role of the F-35B STOVL aircraft is ground attack with a secondary air-to-air role. The aircraft is powered by a single main engine with a vertically-mounted, shaft-driven lift fan propulsion system. Working on the multi-phase testing of the F-35 Block 3F, U.K.-unique Paveway IV are U.S. government, military and contractor personnel, U.K. Ministry of Defence representatives, and U.K. industry partners from BAE Systems, QinetiQ and Raytheon Systems Ltd.
The F-35B STOVL variant will be a multi-role stealthy strike aircraft to replace the Marine Corps’ F/A-18C/D Hornet and AV-8B Harrier aircraft. The carrier-suitable variant, the F-35C, will provide the Department of Navy a multi-role, stealthy strike aircraft to complement the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet. The Paveway IV is a Raytheon U.K. product, Lockheed Martin is the aircraft contractor and Pratt & Whitney is the engine contractor.
Photo of the F-35 dropping the Paveway IV (Photo: U.S. F-35 Program Office)
That is a wicked cool aircraft. The pilot can see “through” the skin of the plane, using cameras of course.
Putin announced his new planes the other day, and some military guy on FNC laughed at him. He said they will be 10-15 years getting them to fly, and be invisible. The F-35 is ready to kick butt now.
*facepalm *
The f-35 is a waste of cash and other resources.
I really hope Canada gets out of this thing.
Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program was created in 1993.. 22 years later and it’s still not fielded and probably won’t until 2018 if they’re lucky. That would make it 25 years from design to deployment.
It’s a very costly POS.
Affordable?????
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