“With JSOW C in its internal weapons bay, the Navy’s F-35C can now eliminate the toughest ground targets from significant standoff ranges,” Mike Jarrett, vice president of Raytheon Air Warfare Systems

Efforts to the integrate the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon C (JSOW C) onto the F-35C is on the final stretch with Raytheon and the U.S. Navy completing the final developmental test at China Lake recently.

“With JSOW C in its internal weapons bay, the Navy’s F-35C can now eliminate the toughest ground targets from significant standoff ranges,” said Mike Jarrett, vice president of Raytheon Air Warfare Systems in the company news release. “JSOW’s advanced warhead and smart fuse provide fighter pilots with plenty of flexibility against hard and soft targets — plus, it has many programmable effects.”

Lockheed Martin, manufacturer of the F-35, and the F-35 Joint Program Office participated in the latest test too.

The JSOW glide weapon is a family of low-cost, air-to-ground glide missiles that uses a GPS-inertial navigation system with an imaging infrared seeker that can identify and track targets autonomously.

JSOW C weighs 1,000 pounds and is effective against high-value land targets at ranges greater than 70 nautical miles, day or night, and in adverse weather conditions.

The JSOW C-1 variant adds the two-way Strike Common Weapon Datalink to the combat-proven missile, enabling a moving maritime target capability.

The C-1 is designed to provide fleet forces with the capability and flexibility to engage moving maritime targets, while retaining its robust capability against stationary land targets. A modification to the existing JSOW C weapon, this variant adds a weapon datalink radio and modified seeker software to increase capability for the anti-surface warfare mission.

Photo credit: Dane Wiedmann / U.S. Navy

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