The Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace Joint Strike Missile (JSM) has entered its final phase of development following the successful conclusion of its last qualification flight test (FTM-5) in March this year.
Pending a Final Design Review in June, development of the missile is scheduled for completion by the end of 2018, following which it will be prepared for integration, carriage, and release trials with the Royal Norwegian Air Force’s (RNoAF’s) F-35A Lightning II multirole stealth fighter.
FTM-5 was the culmination of a four-year flight test campaign to qualify the missile for integration with the RNoAF’s F-35A. In a first end-to-end flight test for the missile, a JSM equipped with a live warhead was launched from a legacy F-16C/D Fighting Falcon from the US Air Force’s 445th Flight Test Group against a ‘realistic’ land target at the Utah Test and Training Range in the United States.
janes.com