Pax River F35 Conducts First Weapon Separation Test

F-35B test aircraft BF-3, flown by Lockheed Martin test pilot Dan Levin, completed the first aerial weapons release for any variant of the aircraft on Aug. 8, 2012. Photo: Lockheed Martin/Andy Wolfe

The F-35 Lightning II accomplished the first weapon separation test yesterday (August 8, 2012) on a test flight over the Atlantic test range. The release was the first time for any version of the F-35 to conduct an airborne weapon separation, and the first time a full separation test was performed with a weapon dropped from the internal weapon bay.

The milestone marks the start of validating the F-35′s capability to employ precision weapons and allow pilots to engage the enemy on the ground and in the air.

The test was performed by BF-3, a short take-off and vertical landing F-35 variant, dropping an inert 1,000-pound GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) separation weapon over water in an Atlantic test range while traveling at 400 knots at an altitude of 4,200 feet. Aircraft and land-based test monitoring systems collected data from the successful separation, which is in review at the F-35 integrated test force at Naval Air Station Patuxent River.

“While this weapons separation test is just one event in a series of hundreds of flights and thousands of test points that we are executing this year, it does represent a significant entry into a new phase of testing for the F-35 program,” said Navy Capt. Erik Etz, director of test for F-35 naval variants.