An F-35A strike fighter last week completed the aircraft type’s first in-flight launch of an AIM-120 air-to-air missile, announced testers at Edwards AFB, Calif. The launch of the AIM-120C5 instrumented air vehicle from test aircraft AF-1 took place on June 5 over the Point Mugu Sea Test Range, according to Edwards’ June 6 release. Point Mugu is off the southern California coast. “It’s a testament to the entire military-industry test team. They’ve worked thousands and thousands of hours to get to this point,” said Lt. Col. George Schwartz, F-35 Integrated Test Force director at Edwards who piloted AF-1 on this test sortie. “It’s fantastic to see that it’s all paid off,” he added. This was “the first launch where the F-35 and AIM-120 demonstrated a successful launch-to-eject communications sequence and fired the [missile’s] rocket motor after launch,” paving the way for targeted launches in support of the Block 2B software release later this year, according to the release. The F-35A is slated to reach initial operating capability by December 2016. (See also Lockheed Martin release.)
Every year, Congress and the military debate which combat assets should head to the boneyard and which have more life left in them. Lawmakers often opt to keep Air Force systems that bring jobs to their districts, which complicates matters as the service looks to modernize and ditch certain platforms.…