The F-35 on Friday completed the first three airborne gunfire bursts from its internal gun, according to a Defense Department statement.
The blasts came from the aircraft’s internal gun airborne unit (GAU)-22/A 25mm Gatling gun system during a California test flight. Three bursts of 30 rounds each and two 60 rounds each were fired from the F-35’s four-barrel, 25mm gun. In integrating the weapon into its stealthy F-35A airframe, the gun must be kept hidden behind closed doors to reduce its radar cross section until the trigger is pulled.
F-35A test aircraft AF-2, a loads-instrumented jet, underwent an extensive structural modification at Edwards AFB, Calif., to have a fully production representative internal gun configuration. The first phase of test execution consisted of 13 ground gunfire events over the course of three months to verify the integration of the gun into the F-35A. Once verified, the team was cleared to begin this second phase of testing, with the goal of evaluating the gun’s performance and integration with the airframe during airborne gunfire in various flight conditions and aircraft configurations.
The gun system will be further tested with a production F-35A next year for integration with the jet’s full mission systems capabilities. The test team will demonstrate the gun’s effectiveness in both air-to-air and air-to-ground employment when integrated with the next generation fighter’s sensor fusion software, which will provide targeting information to the pilot through the helmet mounted display. At the end of the program’s system development and demonstration phase in 2017, the F-35 will have an operational gun.
The F-35 is developed by Lockheed Martin [LMT] with subcontractors BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman [NOC].