F-35 Stealth Fighter: Now A Nuclear Bomber?

19FortyFive ^ | 12/2/2020 | Caleb Larson

[IndispensableDestiny]

Outwardly, it’s just a bomb. The guided tail-kit seen in the video is pretty cool.

[Little Ray]

Any plane that can drop a bomb over 2500 lbs. is potentially a ‘nuclear bomber.’

[Red Badger]

If it had been a real nuke, could the aircraft out run the EMP?................

[jaydubya2]

"Luckily, the B61-12 was an inert training bomb and did not explode."

Whew! We dodged a bullet this time!

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

There’s not much EMP with a ground burst. EMPs are most effective at higher altitudes.

[norwaypinesavage]

"dropped a B61-12 nuclear bomb onto the desert floor at an altitude of 10,500 feet."

Let's hope he had his afterburners on to get out of there REALLY FAST.

[17th Miss Regt]

And the B-61 weighs in at about 700 pounds.

[odawg]

“...could the aircraft out run the EMP?”

If the Enola Gay could, it certainly can.

[Little Ray]

I wonder if it fits in the weapons bay?

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

It’s not much bigger than a MK-84 ( 2000 lbs bomb ).

[JohnnyP]

From the article:

“What made the F-35 flight test unique however was the jet’s stealth features. In order to leave the F-35’s stealth capabilities intact — measured by the jet’s radar cross-section — ordnance is carried in an internal bomb bay. According to Sandia, this most recent flight test was a first in two areas: the first B61-12 from an internal bomb bay, as well as the first supersonic, Mach 1+ drop test.”

[Covenantor]

If it had been a real nuke, could the aircraft out run the EMP?.........

ummm, nope....EMP travels at about 90% the speed of light....

[CodeToad]

“could the aircraft out run the EMP”

Why would it need to?

[DEPcom]

“could the aircraft outrun the EMP”

They are designed hardened where they do not need to outrun.

[jdsteel]

“ If it had been a real nuke, could the aircraft out run the EMP?................”

The better question is at 10,500 feet altitude can it outrun the blast zone. At “supersonic speed” they must have thought so, and no doubt it was part of the real world test.

[Arlis]

I understand this is a tactical nuke, but dropping from a low 10,000’ altitude seems to me that the plane would still be caught in the nuclear shock wave and destroyed.

Maybe not if at supersonic speed though - which this was.

[OKSooner]

Well gee, something like that would be perfect, one would think, for going somewhere and blowing a really big dam holding back bazillions and bazillions of cubic feet of water from flooding an industrialized urban area downstream, to smithereens and kingdom come.

Including the location of a notorious bioweapons lab. Come to think of it, send two F-35s and nuke the lab first to disinfect it, then nuke the dam.

That is, hypothetically, of course.

[Psalm 73]

Filling the old F-111 role of a medium bomber?

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Gravity nukes all have parachutes in the tail cone just to prevent that.