The US Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force have combined forces to test the release of small munitions dropped from the weapons bay of supersonic aircraft.
The USAF/Boeing-developed Small Smart Bomb (SSB) will be dropped from a RAAF General Dynamics F-111, the USAF having retired its fleet of F-111s several years ago. The swing-wing strike aircraft is one of the few types able to drop bombs at supersonic speeds from an internal weapons bay.
The testing is required as the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor and Joint Strike Fighter have internal weapons bays. Integration work is underway for 16 drops of the 113kg (250lb) bombs planned for October and November off the southern coast of Australia.
The test will help the USAF identify and correct problems that next-generation fighters may experience when dropping small munitions from weapon bays at supersonic speeds.
Fred Davis, a technical director for the Air Force Research Laboratory's munitions directorate, says "the test data will help validate computational codes that will be used to analyse trajectories of SSBs once separated from the weapons racks of supersonic aircraft like the F-22."
Officials say the RAAF's involvement in the test programme might lead to procurement of miniaturised munitions.
Source: Flight International
