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Raptor Drops SDB:


Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

Test personnel at the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, Calif., conducted the first drop of the Small Diameter Bomb from the internal weapons bay of an F-22A earlier this month, according to a Sept. 26 release. Maj. Jack Fischer, a test pilot with the 411th Flight Test Squadron, said the test “proved our predictions were modeled properly; the bomb came out exactly as it should have for the first test, so we’re right on track.” The Raptor will be able to carry eight SDBs, two advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, and two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. Fischer noted also that no other aircraft “can release a supersonic weapon out of an internal weapons bay,” but the “flow field and shock wave interactions present a very complex challenge.”

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org