The 416th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards AFB, Calif., is leading the testing of the F-35’s Joint Strike Missile for various international partner nations, according to a press release. The JSM, which makes use of stealth technology and can be used against targets at sea or on land, is being tested on F-16s first. Norway and Australia are among the nations participating in the testing. “What we’re doing is conducting risk-mitigation testing with the F-16 before the JSM is integrated on the F-35,” said James Cook, the 416th FLTS JSM program manager, according to the release. The team conducts live missile tests over the Utah Test and Training Range, and the testing work with foreign partners is part of the squadron’s European Participating Air Force Program. (See also: Joint Strike Missile’s First Shot.)
The U.S. homeland is vulnerable to air and missile attack across the Arctic because the network of ground, air, and space-based defenses guarding those approaches have atrophied over time, according to a new paper from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
