F-35 completes 25 weapons tests in a month

The F-35 testing program has completed 12 weapons delivery accuracy, and 13 separation tests, involving 30 weapons during a month long testing period. Weapons included the AIM-120, AIM-9X, JDAM, and SDB.

With the aide of its new Block 3F software, the Lockheed Martin F-35 recently completed twelve weapons delivery accuracy and 13 weapon separation events during a month-long weapon test on the US West Coast.

During Block 2 software testing on the F-35, the service accomplished three weapons delivery accuracy tests in one month. The recent tests employed 30 different weapons including the Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munition, Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM, Boeing GPS-guided Small Diameter Bomb and Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder, according to a 22 August Lockheed press release.

www.flightglobal.com...

I don't even know why this is news at all. Any vehicles can shoot any weapons.

a reply to: makemap

You don't just put weapons on and pull the trigger. There's a lot more to it than that, and as much as people bitch about the F-35 this is more proof that it works.

originally posted by: makemap
I don't even know why this is news at all. Any vehicles can shoot any weapons.

Statements like this are why engineers have high blood pressure.

Second line :]

Are there any newer smaller guided missiles they are trialling?

a reply to: Blackfinger

or any smaller drone partner aircraft/uav they are launching

a reply to: Blackfinger

Not yet. They're still working on the major weapons systems right now.

a reply to: Zaphod58

id argue that it in no way fills the intended role it was designed for simply due to cost alone. i always found the whole project suspect cause its been long known that its never cheaper to develop a new plane then to just use or modify existing ones. the whole point was to negate that 120 million dollar pricetag of the f-22 which is still a better plane. i knew from the get go theyd never do it for cheaper and that is now the case. imagine the amount of f-22's we could have built and have operating with the money spent but then again they couldnt have conned all those other countries into footing the bill for R&D on the f-35

a reply to: TheScale

You can't keep upgrading old aircraft. Old aircraft aren't going to last 10 minutes against a modern air defense network. And there's no getting around that.

As for the F-22, that had nothing to do with the F-35 program. The F-35 was designed from the start to complement the Raptor, and do air to ground work, while the F-22 kicked the door open. The Raptor was never going to be an air to ground aircraft, except for a very limited role. We need a Day One air to mud platform, which this is.

a reply to: Darkpr0

Hehe 160 over 60 at all time

RAB

originally posted by: makemap
I don't even know why this is news at all. Any vehicles can shoot any weapons.

originally posted by: Darkpr0

originally posted by: makemap
I don't even know why this is news at all. Any vehicles can shoot any weapons.

Statements like this are why engineers have high blood pressure.

Second line :]

That is the truth though. For all you know NASA Space shuttle could have some missiles slapped on it and it will fire.
It doesn't even have to be homing.

You can even put rocket launchers on a car and it will fire. Every other things is done by computers(if you want homing/guided). Which has nothing to do with the vehicle by itself. Vehicles are there to take you from place A to place B fast. This is a fighter jet. It is not surprising at all to be news for weapon test.

What they could explain is the weapons instead.

a reply to: makemap

You couldn't be more wrong. It's not a matter of putting a missile on a plane and firing it. You have to make sure it interfaces with the computer, isn't going to cause excess drag on the plane, isn't going to come off and hit the plane itself (which has happened many times in testing), make sure you can hit the target.... It's not just a matter of "Here's a missile, go put it on the shuttle."

It takes years to get through weapons testing for an aircraft. Right now the F-35 can carry a small number of weapons. Until they complete testing they can't add more to it.

More lockheed-pentagon mouthpiece press releases about this utter failure of an aircraft.

a reply to: Ohanka

And yet everyone that has flown it or worked on it loves it.

Oh wait, they have to say good things about it right? I love the logic behind the hate for the F-35. If it's bad it's obviously true. If it's good it's propaganda.

The F35 will eventually become a workable weapons platform, that much is certain simply because it's too big to fail.

Will it ever be a great one? I doubt that somehow, lets hope the engineers can get on with removing the numerous problems and redesign jobs and perhaps learn from what is undeniably been a complete cluster-f**k of a development journey!

And lets not kid ourselves, F35 has a long long way to go before it reaches actual usable combat performance for it's primary function, CAS (and I don't mean the 10K bul# version), as mentiioned in this article and associated Pentagon related report, there are many problems in store for it's weapons certification yet to come.

aviationweek.com...

The main thing to take from the program is that it can never happen like this again, the US certainly can't afford for a white program to go tits-up like F35 again, without the diplomatic juggling and almost threatening to some of the program partners, F35 could have easily been a US / Israel only show and then the costs would be eye watering in the extreme

War is moving on, hopefully this troubled program will keep up with it rather than being stuck 20 years in the past.

(can't believe the word b.u.l.s.h.i.t gets censored, is this a kids forum now?
)

A little OT, but I'm personally looking forward to seeing development on a turret laser for the F-35B. If that is a success then it could be a game changer in the CAS arena. Add on microwave weapons that are pylon attachable then you bring a whole new dynamic to the battlefield.

originally posted by: Ohanka
More ANTIlockheed-pentagon mouthpiece BS press releases about THE utter failure of THIS aircraft.

Fixed it for ya.