It shows the first flying captive carry of an external F-35B configuration of 4 Paveway IVs (these are a dual-mode PGM) and 2 ASRAAM AIM-132. (click for photo)
The non-exclusive image is from at least as far-back as 2010. It shows the ASRAAM in a mock-up of an F-35 internal weapons bay.
Here is some of the history of integrating ASRAAM with the F-35.
What I wrote in 2009:
For some time, the U.K. has been expecting to carry 4 AIM-132s internally in the F-35. At least they were until this came in early 2008. (JANES link now broken EP) They couldn’t do the work by the end of SDD so it was decided that the goal for the U.K. F-35 program would be to have 2 internal AIM-132s and 2 external AIM-132s on low observable pylons.
The original UK intention was to clear four MBDA Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (ASRAAMs) for internal carriage but this has been revised to include two internal and two external weapons instead.The configuration change was agreed with the JSF Program Office in the United States late last year and was shown in public for the first time during the Singapore Airshow in February. The external ASRAAM fit will be common across all three JSF variants and could therefore attract interest from other international customers, who will otherwise be tied to Raytheon’s AIM-9X Sidewinder.The new ASRAAM plan is a ‘work swap’ that does away with the requirement to clear the ASRAAM on the F-35’s two internal air-to-ground weapon stations. The integration team now has the more straightforward task of providing underwing carriage on stations 1 and 11. The ASRAAM is a rail-launched missile and internal weapons must be carried on a trapeze that swings down clear of the F-35’s weapon bay before they can be launched.It has always been a credo of the JSF programme that external weapons carriage fundamentally compromises the aircraft’s very low observable (VLO) design. Speaking at the Singapore Airshow, George Stanridge, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of F-35 Business Development, noted that, in general, “if you see something hanging on the aircraft it means you are not a VLO airplane”. A new ‘stealthy’ pylon has been developed for the external ASRAAM and MBDA notes that the finless missile already has a tiny radar cross-section.Carrying the ASRAAM outside the weapons bay brings several advantages, primarily in allowing passive long-range – beyond-visual-range (BVR) – engagements cued by the missile’s seeker or the F-35’s infrared search and track sensor.
Now though, even that bit about the stealthy pylons seems to be off the table. In this recent article by Bjørnar Bolsøy on F-16.net, we have words from LM that the stealthy pylons are unfunded.
Development of a stealthy air-to-air pylon has been brought up from time to time. This would allow for reduced signatures when carrying missiles on the wing stations. But the project appears to have been put on ice for the time being. O’Bryan informs that the project is currently not funded. What is being studied, however, is a 6 air-to-air missile capability in the internal weapons bays, which would substantially increase the F-35’s stealthy fire power.
So they got pylons now. Are they stealthy as planned?
It will be interesting to see when new photos appear of a successfully integrated ASRAAM AIM-132 in the internal bays (as per the original SDD requirement). That could be a big "if". As for the AIM-132, it is a good missile. Compared to the AIM-9, I don't consider it "short-ranged".
Here are some of the challenges with rail-mounted missiles and the F-35 weapons bays.
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-Time's Battleland - 5 Part series on F-35 procurement - 2013
-Summary of Air Power Australia F-35 points
-Bill Sweetman, Aviation Week and the F-35
-U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) F-35 reports
-F-35 JSF: Cold War Anachronism Without a Mission
-History of F-35 Production Cuts
-Looking at the three Japan contenders (maneuverability)
-How the Canadian DND misleads the public about the F-35
-Value of STOVL F-35B over-hyped
-Cuckoo in the nest--U.S. DOD DOT&E F-35 report is out
-6 Feb 2012 Letter from SASC to DOD boss Panetta questioning the decision to lift probation on the F-35B STOVL.
-USAFs F-35 procurement plan is not believable
-December 2011 Australia/Canada Brief
-F-35 Key Performance Perimeters (KPP) and Feb 2012 CRS report
-F-35 DOD Select Acquisition Report (SAR) FY2012
-Release of F-35 2012 test report card shows continued waste on a dud program
-Australian Defence answers serious F-35 project concerns with "so what?"
-Land of the Lost (production cut history update March 2013)
-Outgoing LM F-35 program boss admits to flawed weight assumptions (March 2013)
-A look at the F-35 program's astro-turfing
-F-35 and F-16 cost per flying hour
-Is this aircraft worth over $51B of USMC tac-air funding?
-Combat radius and altitude, A model
-F-35A, noise abatement and airfields and the USAF
-Deceptive marketing practice: F-35 blocks
-The concurrency fraud
-The dung beetle's "it's known" lie
-F-35's air-to-air ability limited
-F-35 Blocks--2006 and today
-The F-35B design is leaking fuel
-F-35 deliveries
-ADF's wacky F-35 assumptions
-Gauging performance, the 2008 F-35, Davis dream brief
-Aboriginal brought out as a prop
-Super Kendall's F-35 problem
-LM sales force in pre-Internet era
-History of F-35 engine problems
-Compare
-JSF hopes and dreams...early days of the Ponzi Scheme
-The Prognostics
-2002--Australia joins the F-35 program
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