The F-35A successfully tested one of its most lethal weapons for the first time

Ahead of the US Air Force's decision to declare their variant of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II combat ready, the Joint Strike Program announced the successful testing of the jet's air-to-air missiles. During testing on July 28, Air Force F-35A test pilot Maj. Raven LeClair identified a drone target and fired anair-t0-air missilefrom the external wing to engage itover restricted military airspace off the coast of California."It's been said you don't really have a fighter until you can actually hit a target and we crossed that threshold with the first air-to-air weapon delivery of an AIM-9X," LeClair said following the successful exercise.The F-35A is equipped with twoshort-range, heat-seekingAIM-9X missiles on its wings, as well asa General DynamicsGAU-22/ 25mm Gatling gunandtwo2,000-pound GBU-31 JDAM guided bombs.Even though the Air Force is currently operatingthe oldest fleet in its history, it's the last of the sister service branches to declare its F-35 variant combat ready.SEE ALSO:The largest buyer of the F-35 just declared it ready for warSEE ALSO:The F-35 has hit another snag ' this time because it is just too goodJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: America's $400 billion warplane has some major flaws
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