The F-35A jet has proven to be a very costly endeavor for the United States military, it’s poised to become the primary weapon for the company when it’s ready and also for its allies, yet the work still continues and it may take a few years before it’s ready to take up the charge. A few months after conducting the first test of the F-35’s gatling gun, a video of the first aerial test of this gun has now been released.
The video shows Lockheed Martin conducting the first aerial test of the GAU-22/A gatling gun on the F-35 fighter jet. It’s an incredible weapon that’s capable of firing over 3,300 25mm rounds per minute, it fires so fast that you might find it hard to catch by naked eye.
GAU-22/A is a significant improvement over similar weapons found in jets like the F15-C, F-16 and F-15E, those jets only have cannons that are capable of firing 20mm shells. It does pose a big challenge for pilots since the F-35A is only capable of carrying one 220-round magazine, the gun fires so fast that pilots and go through the entire magazine in just four seconds.
This test was successful so that’s one thing crossed off the list, however work is far from over, the control software for this jet is still under development and it’s believed that the F-35A will finally be combat ready by 2019 provided that everything goes according to plan.