JSF history-proving a 1000lb penetrator weapon

In the 1990’s during the early days of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, the decision for the weight class of what air-to-ground munitions the 3 different aircraft types were to carry internally was different than what it is today.

Back then, it was decided that the USAF and USMC JSF variants were to carry internally two 1000 pound class air-to-ground weapons. The Navy wanted to carry two 2000 pound class air-to-ground weapons internally for their variant of the JSF.

(click on image to make it larger)

Some needed convincing that they could live with a lighter weapon class for internal carry on the JSF. It is important to note that just being heavier isn’t good enough to get the bomb to properly penetrate common cement/brick buildings let alone a fortification. For instance, the 2000 pound variant for this kind of work is not the plain vanilla “iron bomb” known as the Mark 84. Anything that involves bombing this kind of target goes to it’s cousin, the forged steel pointy tip bomb known as the BLU-109.

In order to convince the end user that the lighter bomb class would be good enough for internal carry, it was necessary to create a prototype 1000 pound class penetrator as seen from this 1990’s test.

Yet, in the end the USAF decided they—like the Navy—wanted to carry two 2000 pound class weapons internally on the JSF. I often wonder if had the USAF stuck with the original plan would their JSF variant suffer less development problems?

Why less development problems? Well, as one F-35 JSF test pilot stated, “holes are heavy”. This means the bigger the internal bay on an aircraft, the more weight you add to the design.

In another post, we will look into JSF requirements from those early days and observe the complexity and thin assumptions.

How thin? You decide.