PARIS- METEOR passed a significant milestone in its F-35 integration with its first jettison from the internal weapons bay of an F-35B at Naval Air Station Patuxent River (NHK) in Maryland on 7 October.
The successfully completed developmental test is the first in a series of METEOR jettison flight trials and marks an important step forward for the F-35 METEOR integration programme.
First Weapons Bay Release Advances F-35 METEOR Integration
METEOR is MBDA’s beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile. MBDA announced the milestone on 5 November, almost a month after the flight.
The trial used an inert weapon test asset. The asset separated from the aircraft without firing its rocket motor, so the test focused on safe separation, not powered flight.
The flight showed that METEOR can leave the F-35 weapons bay safely despite the complex aerodynamic conditions around it. It also produced essential data to improve the predictive digital models that assess weapon release characteristics.
Jettison testing measures how safely a missile leaves its host aircraft or launch platform, either in normal operation or during an emergency abort. A clean release means the weapon does not strike the fuselage, damage the wing structures, or upset the flight dynamics of the vehicle.
Over the coming months, METEOR will go through a series of release profiles to confirm safe separation across the operational envelope of the F-35. The developmental releases will lead to live firings. Those firings will check both separation and weapon fly-out performance under varying release conditions.
A combined UK and US F-35 Integrated Test Force (ITF) team prepared and loaded the weapon test asset. The team included personnel from the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force and Lockheed Martin.
A Royal Navy F-35 test pilot flew the sortie. The pilot is assigned to the Air and Space Warfare Centre (ASWC) and embedded within the F-35 ITF.
Allied Partnership and Combat Air Capability
The test team’s work, together with support from the UK Ministry of Defence, the US Department of Defense, the Italian Ministero della Difesa, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, MBDA and Northrop Grumman, forms a collective effort that shows the strength of allied partnerships.
The UK leads the METEOR integration on the F-35B, while Italy sponsors the integration on the F-35A. The progress directly supports the Combat Air capability of both nations. It increases long-range air-to-air weapon options and enhances lethality.
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