At one time, the author raised the issue of equipping the Russian fifth generation fighter Su-57 with the latest aviation weapons. It was the turn of the F-35 aircraft, which enters "adulthood" like a naughty teenager. With conflicts and scandals, which, however, is characteristic of absolutely any new model of technology. Military and not only.
Now, recall, built about 400 F-35 aircraft in three configurations: "land", deck and short takeoff and vertical landing. The total number of machines produced in the foreseeable future may amount to three thousand aircraft, and there is no reason to doubt that this will really be the case. Now the F-35 is objectively the most popular fifth generation fighter on the market. The Chinese J-20, like the Russian Su-57, will have to try very hard to have at least a quarter of that success on the international arms market. However, nothing is impossible. Let's see what new capabilities the F-35 will receive in 10-15 years.
Air-to-air missiles
They like to call the F-35 "light bomber" and "short-legged striker", mistakenly (or deliberately) overlooking the fact that it is one of the most formidable fighters when it comes to long-range aerial combat. One such aircraft carries up to four AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range missiles in its internal compartments to comply with stealth requirements. The use of the new AIM-9X Sidewinder melee missiles in this mode has not yet been implemented: they, like additional AMRAAMs, can be carried by the aircraft on external holders.
Four AIM-120 missiles are not a lot and not a little. Advertising and propaganda materials aside, this is probably how much it will take to confidently defeat a fighter-type target. However, this is just the beginning. Lockheed Martin recently proposed a Sidekick system that allows the F-35A and F-35C (but not the F-35B!) Versions to carry six AMRAAM missiles in internal compartments. However, so far this is only a proposal, which is associated with the promotion of a new aircraft from Boeing, the F-15X, to the market. It should be reminded that it is supposed to carry up to 22 air-to-air missiles on external suspension.
It's hard to say whether the American military will spend on new expenses for the F-35, but the idea to equip a winged vehicle with six AIM-120s has been voiced for a long time. The most ambitious proposal of the past years was the concept of a miniature kinetic missile CUDA from Lockheed Martin, which in theory allows to increase the number of missiles placed in the internal compartments of the F-35 to twelve units. CUDA is not just a concept, but also a very serious reason to think for Europe, Russia and China.
Air-to-surface missiles
Soon, the F-35 will be able to carry a large arsenal of various guided missiles on internal and external holders. The aircraft will be able to solve anti-radar warfare tasks with the help of a new AARGM-ER missile placed in the internal compartments, which is a further development of the well-known AGM-88E anti-radar missile. The guidance system, in addition to the passive radar, included an active millimeter-wave radar channel, an inertial-satellite correction unit and two-way data transmission equipment. The supersonic missile is estimated to have a range of up to 190 kilometers, thus providing the potential to destroy all existing and future anti-aircraft missile systems. It can be argued with a high degree of probability that it is the combination of the F-35 and the AARGM-ER that poses the greatest danger to Russia due to the noticeably increasing threat to the air defense system.
According to new information voiced by the Americans in the proposal for the defense budget for the 2020th fiscal year, the possibility of turning the AARGM-ER missile into a universal tactical strike complex appears. Thus, the F-35 can get a relatively cheap "long arm" unified with an anti-radar missile.
Another important news of recent times was the idea of Lockheed Martin to equip the F-35C version with a Hypesonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) hypersonic missile: in total, the deck boat will be able to carry two products on external holders. To accelerate the rocket, an accelerator will be used on the first, and then a ramjet engine will come into play, allowing the product to maintain the highest speed throughout the entire flight phase, until the moment a ground or surface target is hit. However, it is important to say that even if the military agrees to purchase such a complex for the F-35C, its finishing and integration into the F-35 armament can take many years.
In the internal compartments, the aircraft should in the future be able to carry Joint Strike Missile missiles, created on the basis of the Norwegian Naval Strike Missile, which has already been put into service. It is a subsonic missile with a range of up to 180 kilometers, capable of striking a wide variety of targets. Do not forget about the AGM-158 JASSM cruise missile, which has long been seen as another "long arm" of the new aircraft.
Bomb armament
It makes no sense to list all the available and promising bomb armament for the F-35, especially since everyone can familiarize themselves with the list of ammunition. In short, this is, first of all, ammunition of the JDAM family, with a caliber of up to 900 kilograms: such an aircraft can carry up to two units in its internal compartments.
However, we are more interested in the future. And it has less to do with this type of ammunition and not with laser-guided bombs. And not even with the newest GBU-39. First of all, as seen from the outside, the high combat potential of the aircraft in the future can be provided by the newest GBU-53 / B, which is a development of the GBU-39. The very small size allows up to eight such bombs to be placed in the internal compartments of the F-35, and the use of a special aerodynamic scheme allows the bomb to fly over 100 kilometers after separation from the carrier aircraft. The new bomb has a tri-band homing head that combines GPS-assisted inertial guidance, infrared and active radar homing. The perfect guidance system allows you to hit both stationary and mobile targets. Summing up the latest data, we can say that the Americans want to equip all three versions of the aircraft with such bombs around the first half of the 2020s.
This is a very serious argument. From the side of the GBU-53, it is seen as an "ultimatum" weapon system that combines high combat potential and relatively low cost. And the integration of ammunition is unlikely to be a problem for experienced Americans.
Let's try to summarize the results. The F-35 is likely to receive a whole range of the latest weapons systems, among which there are several main ones:
These weapons systems, even without taking into account the existing and other promising ones, will allow the aircraft to solve almost the entire spectrum of existing combat missions.
