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.”
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
