By Franz-Stefan Gady
The test was hailed as a ‘milestone’ by the missile’s developers.
A missile specifically designed for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was successfully tested last week at the Utah Test and Training Range in Utah’s West Desert in the Western United States.
According to a press release by Norwegian defense contractor Kongsberg, which is jointly developing the Joint Strike Missile (JSM) with Raytheon, the missile was launched from a F-16 at 22,000 feet and performed “a number of challenging flight maneuvers.”
The JSM–designed to fit inside the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter’s missile bay in order to maintain the stealth capabilities of the aircraft– is a fifth-generation, long-range, precision-guided, stand-off missile system and can be deployed in anti-surface warfare and naval fire support missions.
The recent test showed the technological maturity of the missile including its software, Kongsberg underlines. “This is a major accomplishment for the JSM program, and in addition several critical capabilities beyond the scope of the test were verified. The test demonstrates that we are on track with the qualification of JSM, which brings critical capability to F-35 and the warfighter,” says Harald Ånnestad, the president of Kongsberg Defense Systems.
Read the full story at The Diplomat