|
Raptor flew with external stores for the first time during a late August test at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, California. The stores, two radar-guided AIM-120 missiles, were suspended from pylons attached to the aircraft’s two outboard hardpoints during the test flight. The F/A-22 is designed to carry its primary weapons internally, but weapons or fuel tanks can also be carried externally on two inboard and two outboard hardpoints during deployments or during military operations when stealth is not critical to the mission. Another Raptor, No. 03, (photos at far right) became the first Raptor used to successfully launch a radar-guided AIM-120C missile while flying faster than the speed of sound. The missile was launched while Raptor 03 was flown at Mach 1.2 at 12,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean. The launch occurred during a test flight on 21 August. |
