Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times

F-22 small-diameter bomb test successful

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — The F-22 Raptor has reached a new milestone, successfully dropping a smaller, faster bomb that can be stored internally to maintain the fighter jet’s stealth.

Pending the success of more challenging test drops, the small-diameter bomb will be added to the F-22, enabling the jet to quadruple its weapons load. It has storage capacity for eight small-diameter bombs, two advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles and two heat-seeking AIM Sidewinder missiles.

It’s now cleared to fly with two Joint Direct Attack Munitions, larger-caliber smart bombs, said Maj. Jack Fischer, a 411th Flight Test Squadron pilot. Allowing the F-22 to carry smaller bombs increases its range considerably, he said. “The (small-diameter bomb) envelope will be the highest and fastest of currently fielded Air Force weapons.”

The F-22 was designed primarily for air-to-air superiority, not air-to-ground superiority. Still, no aircraft can release a supersonic weapon from an internal weapons bay, Fischer said. The F-22 will attempt to drop laser-guided small-diameter bombs in future tests.

“We have to learn how much we can get away with while inducing loads on an aircraft that wasn’t designed to carry bombs at first,” said Bill Kuhlemeier, a Lockheed Martin chief flight test engineer.