combat aircraft

which will see the F-35s working alongside

other UK assets. The  nal push to IOC

will see nine F-35Bs in the UK, and a

‘war week’ is intended to demonstrate

capability before the declaration that the

Lightning Force is ready to deploy in a

land-based capacity.

The F-35’s system development and

demonstration (SDD) phase included work

on two UK-speci c weapons: the Raytheon

Paveway IV precision-guided bomb and

MBDA AIM-132 ASRAAM (Advanced

Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile), which will

be  elded as part of the IOC alongside the

AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-

Air Missile (AMRAAM) for a ‘full war ghting

capability’. The Integrated Test Force (ITF)

will then set about integration work with

the new Meteor beyond-visual-range

air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) and SPEAR

3 (Selective Precision E ects At Range

Capability 3) weapons.

Going to sea

HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of

Wales are the centerpieces of the UK’s

expeditionary air power strategy. In

August, the Queen Elizabeth will sail from

Portsmouth for ‘WESTLANT 18’, which

includes two periods of integration testing

with the F-35B. A pair of instrumented

F-35Bs from the ITF at Naval Air Station

Patuxent River, Maryland, will embark the

carrier for two periods, dubbed DT-1 and

DT-2, under the  rst-of-class  ight trials

(FOCFT) for the Queen Elizabeth-class

http://www.combataircraft.net // September 2018 41

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