USAF drops inert 2000-pound bomb in F-35 test flight

Via CNN-

Meanwhile, the Air Force on Tuesday successfully dropped an inert 2,000-pound bomb in an F-35 test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It was the first such bomb deployment by the Air Force's version of the jet.

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/1 ... s-forward/

And of course the banner picture is the F-35C... standard.

EDIT: to be fair most of the article is actually about the C, or rather being complainy about the F-35C.

In all fairness, the first 90% of the article was about the F-35C. Only that last paragraph was about the F-35A.

EDIT: Ouch.. beat me to the correction as I was reading the article and typing a response

Ha, witness the power of EDIT.

By the way, can anyone find another source for the F-35A test?

Prinz_Eugn wrote:Ha, witness the power of EDIT.

By the way, can anyone find another source for the F-35A test?

Good question as I checked the usual sources and couldn't find anything. The reporter must have just talked to an official close to the program before posting.

Well they recently dropped a smaller JDAM so progress wise it would make sense.

If such a test has taken place, we'll probably hear all about it sometime this week. Good news, but not particularly impressive against the manifold problems in the program. I've long since ceased to criticize JSF on the grounds of design or performance (the purview of fanboys), but we should have been at this point years ago. This project has been a perfect example of the old axiom, "too many cooks spoil the broth." No sense in crying over spilt milk though; it's all a question of flyaway costs for full-rate production now.

There are many things that happen and you do not hear about it.

The F-35B carrying a Paveway internally comes to mind.

Source in Dutch unfortunatley.

elp wrote:Via CNN-

Meanwhile, the Air Force on Tuesday successfully dropped an inert 2,000-pound bomb in an F-35 test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It was the first such bomb deployment by the Air Force's version of the jet.

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/1 ... s-forward/

Ahhh, all this from a "Mistake Jet" I wonder when they will start making the real ones.

beepa wrote:

elp wrote:Via CNN-

Meanwhile, the Air Force on Tuesday successfully dropped an inert 2,000-pound bomb in an F-35 test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It was the first such bomb deployment by the Air Force's version of the jet.

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/1 ... s-forward/

Ahhh, all this from a "Mistake Jet" I wonder when they will start making the real ones.

Troll much?

Munitions types will hate this for the inexactness of it.

But if that was a USAF prepped weapon and it was real it would be the GBU-31B(V)3/B (munitions people would be much more descriptive). The pointy tip shape makes it of course not a Mk84 bomb unit but a BLU-109/B which has not bad penetration against reinforced concrete buildings and such.

PICTURE: F-35A releases first air-launched weapon Craig Hoyle London 17 Oct 2012

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articl ... on-377754/

"...test aircraft AF-1 having dropped a JDAM-series GBU-31 908kg (2,000lb) bomb on 16 October.

Jettisoned from the F-35A's left-side internal weapons bay, the instrumented weapon was released over the China Lake weapons range in California. AF-1 was flown by US Air Force Maj Matthew Phillips from Edwards AFB...."

elp wrote:Troll much?

Pot meet kettle.

m582 wrote:
Source in Dutch unfortunatley.

How come the weapon bay doors aren't open symmetrically in this picture?