{"id":195,"date":"2019-05-02T09:15:30","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T13:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aerospaceincanada.com\/?p=195"},"modified":"2019-05-02T02:33:47","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T06:33:47","slug":"the-lockheed-martin-f-35a-and-c-are-getting-a-new-sidekick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aerospaceincanada.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/02\/the-lockheed-martin-f-35a-and-c-are-getting-a-new-sidekick\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lockheed Martin F-35A and C are Getting A New ‘Sidekick’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

First reported by Sea Power Magazine on May 1, Lockheed Martin has announced a new internal missile rack for the F-35A and C dubbed ‘Sidekick’. The new rack holds three missiles per side, instead of the standard two, which brings the F-35’s internal payload from 4 AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to 6. The F-35B will not be able to receive this upgrade due to the smaller weapons bay which was a result of the B’s lift-fan system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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F-35A Lightning II aircraft on the taxiway (Credit: Paul Holcomb\/U.S. Air Force)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Lockheed Martin had mentioned the upgraded racks in the past but confidence in the system actually materializing was low among many journalists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The announcement came at a Lockheed Martin press briefing from Cmdr. Tony ‘Brick’ Wilson, one of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 test pilots. According to Cmdr. Wilson, the project was researched, developed and funded entirely from within the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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F-35A looking sharp on a wet morning. (Credit: Unknown)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The ability to carry 6 AMRAAMs internally plus a further two AIM-9X’s in the internal side bays, puts the F-35 in a better position than the F-16 as the F-16 can only carry 6 AMRAAMs if it uses all of its missile rails for that single missile type. Adding close to medium range AIM-7’s or AIM-9’s would drop the total AMRAAM capacity to 4. There is also more drag, especially when drop tanks are added. With two wing tanks, the payload drops to 4 missiles in total which is half of the F-35’s internal capacity and still less fuel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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F-35 in beast mode, fully loaded for air-to-air. The only difference is there are now two more slots internally for AMRAAMs. This would bring the total payload to 14 AMRAAMs and 4 AIM-9’s for a total of 18 missiles. (Credit: Lockheed Martin)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Dutch F-35A in ‘beast mode’ for close air support (Credit: Frank Crebas)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The F-35A can carry 18,500 lbs of fuel internally. With 6 AMRAAMs and 2 AIM-9’s, the total payload would come in at 20,886 lbs. Combined with the F-35A’s airframe weight of 29,000 lbs, we arrive at 49,886 lbs, which still leaves room for 20,114 lbs of external stores for ‘beast mode’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news just keeps stacking up for the F-35 and Lockheed Martin in-general as far as program progress goes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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F-35A Squadron Print. Available for purchase at Aircraft Profile Prints<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First reported by Sea Power Magazine on May 1, Lockheed Martin has announced a new internal missile rack for the F-35A and C dubbed ‘Sidekick’. The new rack holds three missiles per side, instead of the standard two, which brings the F-35’s internal payload from 4 AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to 6. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14,11],"tags":[34,5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aerospaceincanada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aerospaceincanada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aerospaceincanada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aerospaceincanada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aerospaceincanada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/aerospaceincanada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206,"href":"https:\/\/aerospaceincanada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions\/206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aerospaceincanada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aerospaceincanada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aerospaceincanada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}