The Navy’s F-35 Has a New Weapon (To Strike Deep Into Enemy Territory)

The United States Navy and the Raytheon have completed integrating the AGM-154C Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) onto the Lockheed Martin F-35C Joint Strike Fighter. 

Dave Majumdar [2]

The United States Navy and the Raytheon have completed integrating the AGM-154C Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) onto the Lockheed Martin F-35C Joint Strike Fighter. The addition of the 70-nautical mile standoff range JSOW paired with the stealthy F-35C will afford the Navy the ability to strike targets deep inside even the toughest enemy air defenses.

“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, said.  “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.”

The JSOW is a glide weapon that uses a combination GPS-inertial navigation guidance system coupled with an imaging infrared seeker that can identify and track targets autonomously according to Raytheon. The JSOW-C—the version that is being integrated onto the F-35C—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.”

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