The US-made F-35A fighter jets have been certified to carry B61-12 free-fall bombs, thus becoming the first-ever fifth-generation aircraft to be given the green light to carry nuclear weapons.
The announcement was made on Friday by a spokesman for the F-35 Joint Program Office, Russ Goemaere, in a statement to Breaking Defense magazine. The ten-year certification program, originally set to be completed by January, has been concluded ahead of schedule.
The F-35A is the first 5th generation nuclear capable aircraft ever, and the first new platform (fighter or bomber) to achieve this status since the early 1990’s.
The US regime is claiming that the development provides the whole NATO bloc with a critical capability against Russia and China, which supports the US’ extended war zone deterrence commitments.
The certification extends only to F-35A conventional takeoff and landing aircraft and does not include other variants of the stealth fighter jet, such as the short take-off and vertical-landing F-35B or the carrier-based F35C.
It also enables the fighters to use only the B61-12, the newer variant of the B61 free-fall nuclear bomb, originally introduced in 1960.
The -12 life extension program, conceived during the Obama administration, is meant to replace older variants of the nuke, with its first production unit rolled out back in late 2021, and is scheduled to run through the end of 2025.
Last year, the Biden administration announced a new -13 life extension program to give the B61 a further makeover.
The development comes as brighter news for the whole F-35 program, riddled as it has been with assorted technical issues and various embarrassing setbacks.
The latest was reported earlier this year by Bloomberg, when it turned out the new $14 billion software upgrade for the jets turned out to be immature and deficient, leading to critical war fighting deficiencies for the aircraft, rather than improvements of their capabilities.
Despite numerous complaints from fighter jet operators, who had observed deficiencies in weapons, fusion, communications and navigation, cybersecurity and targeting processes, the Pentagon had reportedly opted to continue rolling out the faulty update.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point News 2024.
Wonderful, We build a new toy to nuke this planet with.
So planes with “critical war fighting deficiencies”, which asphyxiate pilots, eject them automatically, are now flying around with nukes on board. What could go wrong?
WW III delayed because of rain.
Absolutely irrelevant . Any nuclear war would involve ICBM’s not F35’s . Agsin and again this statement illustrates the US idea of a ‘limited’ nuclear war in Europe Why nobody can see that ? The US definitely believes neither Russia nor the USA would deliberately destroy each other, This way Europe and Asia are left open for some orange dust.
Wow, what a surprise. I wonder if they can make the trip without crashing?
Not much of a match, 14-1600 miles an hour, Satan’s known to NATO as Satan travels 18-21,000 km an hour or around 11,000 miles an hour. F-35 will barely clear the run way, when the Russian Satan arrives, n that’s anywhere in Europe! It may be primary reason Russians aren’t especially frightened of Western arms. Now, its true due to the number of American nukes, some will definitely hit Russia, but not before most NATO countries cease to exist.