The United States Air Force (Air Force), together with Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory, has declassified a video in which a fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighter jet from an internal compartment drops a test model of a thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb B61-12.
The publication of the publication reports that during the test the operation of the systems responsible for the interaction of the fighter and the bomb was tested, in particular, at the stage of disconnecting the latter from the aircraft. It is noted that the F-35 Lightning II, dropping the B61-12, flew at supersonic speed.
The relevant tests, called critical by experts, were held at the Tonopah test site in Nevada in August. The publication notes that the B61-12, in addition to the F-35 Lightning II, will also carry the fourth-generation F-15E Strike Eagle fighter (on external sling), as well as the B-2 Spirit and B-21 Raider subsonic strategic bombers.
It is also known that the Polish F-35 Lightning II, in addition to high-precision missiles and guided aerial bombs, are capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons with a capacity of 50 kilotons in TNT equivalent (products with a capacity of 20 kilotons were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki).
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