Meteor's First Flight on an F-35B

A US Marine Corps F-35B has conducted the first test flights of a Meteor missile. The inert missile is used to gather environmental data as part of the campaign to integrate UK weapons onto F-35.

The sorties were flown from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, made possible due to collaboration between the UK and US governments as well as organisations including the Ministry of Defence, Defence Equipment & Support, and respective industrial partners MBDA and Lockheed Martin.

Meteor is the UK’s primary air-to-air missile and is carried on operations by Typhoon, with this step being progress towards enabling Meteor’s capability on F-35. While the UK is leading the integration campaign for F-35B, Italy is sponsoring integration onto the F-35A model, allowing both aircraft types to take advantage of Meteor’s inclusion.

“This milestone is a testament to the effective collaboration between the multinational governmental and industrial partnerships that we have in place. Inclusion of Meteor onto the Lightning II will bring this formidable air combat capability to the UK and to the burgeoning F-35 community, significantly enhancing security among allies.” Air Commodore Al Roberts, RAF's Head of Air-to-Air Missiles.