F35 JSF Actualité

The internal weapons bay of the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter cannot fit the required number of 250-pound class Increment II Small Diameter Bombs that Raytheon is producing for the Air Force and Navy and must be redesigned and modified ahead of the planned Block 4 software release in fiscal year 2022, the joint program office confirmed this week.

The Marine Corps is purchasing 353 of the F-35B jump jets and 34 had been delivered as of Feb. 2, according to a fact sheet from prime contractor Lockheed Martin. JSF partners Italy and the United Kingdom are also procuring F-35Bs and three of those international orders have been satisfied.

In response to questions from Inside the Air Force, F-35 spokesman Joe DellaVedova confirmed the weapons bay does not currently meet the requirements to house the planned Small Diameter Bomb II load and is being redesigned and modified in line with the scheduled rollout of Block 4 capabilities.

The short-takeoff-vertical-landing (STOVL) aircraft has unique weight requirements compared with the Air Force's conventional F-35A and Navy's F-35C carrier variant because of its vertical lift fan and it has a smaller internal weapons bay.

According to DellaVedova, the JSF program has been aware of the issue for some time and expects to award Lockheed a contract later this year to complete the design changes. The F-35 is designed to carry eight precision-attack small diameter bombs internally and 16 externally on its wings, and the program office has not publicly acknowledged the issue.

The issue surfaced this month in budget documents accompanying the Air Force's FY-16 budget request. A line in the SDB II program scheduled is titled "SDB II Redesign for F-35B/C," but DellaVedova confirmed the weapons bay issue only relates to the STOVL version.

marking the first F-35A assembled internationally and the first of eight aircraft currently being assembled. The aircraft, designated as AL-1, will now proceed to additional check-out activities before its anticipated first flight later this year.

The FACO will build all Italian F-35A and F-35B aircraft, is programmed to build F-35As for the Royal Netherlands Air Force and retains the capacity to deliver to other European partners in the future. In December 2014, it was selected by the U.S. Department of Defense as the F-35 Lightning II Heavy Airframe Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul and Upgrade facility for the European region. The 101-acre facility includes 22 buildings and more than one million square feet of covered work space, housing 11 assembly stations, and five maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade bays. The first full F-35A wing section was recently completed and will soon be shipped to Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas, F-35 production line for final assembly.