METEOR Completes First Jettison Trials on F-35

METEOR passed a significant milestone in its integration on the F-35 with its first jettison from the internal weapons bay of an F 35B in the United States on 7 October.

The trial represents an important step forward for the F-35 METEOR integration programme. The successfully completed developmental test is the first in a series of METEOR jettison flight trials.

Jettison testing evaluates how cleanly and safely a missile detaches from a host aircraft or launch platform under normal operating conditions or during an emergency abort. These tests ensure the weapon separates cleanly without impacting the fuselage, damaging wing structures, or disrupting the vehicle's flight dynamics.

The flight trial demonstrated safe jettison within a complex aerodynamic environment from the F-35 weapons bay and provided essential data to refine the predictive digital models used to assess weapon release characteristics.

METEOR will now be put through a series of release profiles over the coming months to validate safe separation across the F 35’s operational envelope. These developmental releases will culminate in live firings to confirm both separation and weapon fly-out performance under varying release conditions.

The weapon test asset used in the trial was prepared and loaded by a combined UK/US F 35 ITF team comprising personnel from the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Lockheed Martin. The sortie was flown by a Royal Navy F 35 Test Pilot assigned to the Air and Space Warfare Centre (ASWC) and embedded within the F 35 ITF.

Their work, alongside support from the UK Ministry of Defence, US Department of Defense, Italian Ministero della Difesa, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, MBDA and Northrop Grumman, underpins a collective effort that shows the strength of allied partnerships.

The progress on the integration directly contributes to the advancement of the UK and Italy’s Combat Air capability, increasing air-to-air weapon options and enhancing lethality.

You can read more about Meteor on F-35 here:
METEOR missile and F-35A one step closer to operational capability 
METEOR's first flight on an F-35B
Funding secured to complete missile integration on UK and Italian F-35 fleets
Work starts integrating next generation Meteor and SPEAR onto UK F-35 fleet