Watch: This Video Shows How the F-35 Comes In A Terrifying ‘Beast Mode’
Story by Harrison Kass • Yesterday 9:42 AM
The Elegant F-35 has a “Beast Mode” – The F-35 is commonly perceived as an elegant, sophisticated fighter, designed with futuristic features emphasizing stealth and surgical precision. The perception is accurate to a point. Yes, the F-35 is a fifth-generation stealth fighter, built around a supercomputer that enables advanced network connectivity and data sharing. But, the F-35 is a versatile, multi-role fighter after all, and when needed, can convert to a simple, brutish “bomb truck,” – in a configuration informally known as “Beast Mode.”
The F-35 was designed as a stealth fighter, capable of penetrating contested air space and attacking ground and air targets, without being detected, for the purpose of establishing air superiority. To operate in stealth mode, one of the features the F-35 relies on is an internal weapons bay. An internal weapons bay allows an aircraft to carry weapons without mounting them externally, where they would increase an airframe’s radar cross-section and degrade stealthiness. Said another way, attaching harshly angular bombs and missiles under your wings and fuselage will ping enemy radar. So, the F-35 (and F-22) typically carry their weapons load internally, within their smooth, radar-evading fuselage. Of course, only so much weaponry can be packed into an internal weapons bay. In stealth mode, the F-35 can carry a very limited quantity of weapons.
The F-35 is limited to just 5,700 pounds of internal ordinance in stealth mode. For air-to-air missions, that’s just four AIM 120 AMRAAM missiles. And for air-to-air and air-to-surface hybrid missions, that’s just two AMRAAM missiles, plus two GBU-31 JDAM bombs.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/watch-this-video-shows-how-the-f-35-comes-in-a-terrifying-beast-mode/ar-AA15bsZu?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=b853bcdf242741bb82fbcb600507383e
