F-35 Will Not Reach Full Close-Air-Support Potential Until 2022

Delay plays a role in the debate over the aircraft's ability to adequately fulfill the mission of the A-10 Warthog if Air Force officials are allowed by Congress to retire the close-air-support aircraft.

Source MilitaryNews.com

March 11, 2015

The JSF office has already discovered that the SDB II does not fit onto the F-35B -- the Marine Corps variant -- without modifications to the aircraft's weapons bay.

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter pilots will have to wait until 2022 to fire the U.S. military's top close-air-support bomb after the Small Diameter Bomb II enters service in 2017, JSF officials explained.

The Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) is an upgrade from previous precision-guided air-dropped weapons because of its ability to track and hit moving targets from up to 40 miles. However, the F-35 will not have the software package required to operate the bomb loaded onto the fifth generation fighter until 2022, officials said.

More details here.