Just recently, Raytheon announced that it had finished the work necessary to integrate its AGM-154 Joint Stand-Off Weapon glide bomb, or JSOW, into the internal weapons bays on the U.S. Navy’s F-35C Joint Strike Fighter. It’s an important development, especially given that the service is also developing a powered version with quadruple the range, but half the cost of other available air-launched cruise missiles.

Earlier in April 2018, the Massachusetts-headquartered defense contractor declared that the F-35C was fully capable of carrying the AGM-154 internally and that the pairing would now move on to operational testing. The goal is for the weapon to reach initial operational capability as an internal option on the Navy’s variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, or JSF, at some point in 2019. On April 23, 2018, the Navy also announced plans to proceed with the next phase of development of a powered AGM-154C variant, also known the Joint Stand-Off Weapon Extended Range, or JSOW-ER. Stand-off firepower for the Navy's F-35Cs “This is absolutely a critical opportunity for the Navy because now this is their top-line, medium-range precision strike weapon that is capable now of being integrated internally on JSF,” Mark Borup, a representative of Raytheon's Medium-Range Strike and Attack Air Warfare Systems Division, told Military.com in an interview on April 10, 2018. Carried internally, the weapons will allow the service’s F-35Cs to attack targets from a safer, stand-off distance even when in full stealth mode. There are plans in the future to allow the jets to carry it externally, as well.

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As it stands now, the JSOW is the only stand-off air-to-ground weapon the Navy has a firm timeline for adding as an internally-carried option for its F-35Cs. The service has two versions of the 1,000-pound class weapon, the AGM-154A-1 and the AGM-154C-1.

DOD A chart showing planned F-35 weapons options as of 2015.

The AGM-154A-1, or JSOW-A, has a BLU-111/B high explosive bomb inside. This type is particularly useful against troops, light vehicles, and surface-to-air missile sites out in the open. The latter target set is particularly important and the JSOW-A gives U.S. Navy carrier-borne aircraft an important stand-off means of attacking enemy air defenses to help clear the way for follow-on strikes. Combined with the F-35, it could be an especially capable option for neutralizing threats to pave the way for subsequent missions by non-stealthy platforms.

Lockheed Martin An F-35C carries two inert AGM-154C Joint Stand-Off Weapons during a test.