NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — Raytheon is set to announce that its Joint Standoff Weapon’s C variant has been successfully integrated into the internal weapons bay of the the Navy variant of the F-35.
A recent test of the JSOW C demonstrated that the weapon could be toted inside the F-35C and deploy seamlessly. The weapon will move directly into an operational test, a step before being declared ready for use in combat, said Mark Borup, with Raytheon’s Missile Systems division.
The weapon was integrated with the F/A-18 Super Hornet and achieved operational status in June of 2016. Because of the existing test data on the weapon from the Super Hornet tests, the Navy was comfortable hurrying along the integration process.
“The Navy deemed that, with all of the other tests on other platforms ... that the one test would be sufficient to certify it to move on to operational test,” Borup said. “Because it is a mature system, with lots of recent test data ... what they really needed to do was make sure that it could operate from end-to-end from an F-35 without any issues and it passed all of those tests.”
The JSOW C has a 70-plus mile range and is used for medium-range engagements with anything from air defenses to reinforced concrete structures.
The weapon integrates both GPS-targeted and an infrared seeker.
The Navy’s F-35C has a number of weapons lined up that its supposed to be able to operate with.
Once configured with 3F software that enables full warfighting capability, an F-35C will be able to carry five different weapons inside of its internal weapons bays: JSOW, GBU-31/32 Joint Direct Attack Munitions, AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) and GBU-12 Paveway II bombs.
The F-35 program itself could be headed towards a shake-up, moving away from a highly centralized joint program office and towards service-specific offices.
In a March 27 letter to Congress, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official acknowledged that splitting up the F-35 management into smaller offices is likely the way to go for the future of the Pentagon’s largest acquisition program.
But exactly when such a transformation will occur was not defined in the letter written by Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, and the expectation in the Pentagon is that it could happen within the next several years.
Air Warfare Reporter Valerie Insinna contributed to this story.
David B. Larter was the naval warfare reporter for Defense News.
