Lockheed Martin published a new video showing the use of the cannon, the four-rod GAU-22 rotating from 25mm, during a flight test, the first ever, of an F-35A.
AF-2, the same F-35 that the holds taken right during a simulation with an F-16D last January, he shoots for a few seconds with the cannon. The test was successfully passed. A public demonstration of the progress that the F-35 is making, a system that will also have to replace the A-10 Warthog and the F-16 Viper, now engaged in Iraq and Syria.
The story of the cannon has always been at the center of fierce controversy. We know that the F-25's complete 22 mm GAU-35 / A rapid-fire cannon software will be available between 24 / 30 months. The software code of the F-35 is judged to be so complex that it has been divided into five blocks (each one will give superior capabilities: a different thing, however, is the unification of the systems). The problem is that for the F-35 only the first two blocks are available: the one needed to make it fly and the one that allowed the Marines to put the first squadron in line, albeit with "Initial Operational Capacity". The third data block should be delivered next year, in time for the entry into service of the first Air Force squadron with "Initial Operating Capacity", scheduled for December of the 2016. The fourth data block should be delivered in the 2017, while the software needed to make the cannon operational should not be ready before the end of the 2018, the first few months of the 2019, as it is included in the fifth and final data package. Cannon problems will not affect the Navy, but only because the naval version does not include an internal cannon such as the A and B versions of the F-35.
For a "carelessness" it was decided to implement the cannon fire software only in the fifth data block. Translated, it means that the Marine Corps, the first to receive the F-35, has a plane in line that cannot provide troop coverage on the ground (role currently held by the immense A-10). Summarizing even more the concept: the F-35, at least until the 2019 will not be able to fire a single shot with its cannon. Weapon (we know it will not be used for dogfight) designed primarily for infantry support, which from the beginning has raised concerns. We are talking about a cannon capable of firing 3.300 shots per minute, but which will only bring with it 220 ammunition. Also in this case, the data imposes a cynical reasoning: how many passes, over the troops that need coverage, will be able to execute the F-35 with its 220 shots? How many gusts, in a classical context (enemies in numerical superiority) will it be able to fire the fifth-generation fighter? And how many strokes can your technological cell take?
Perhaps, the main problem of the F-35 is only one: it was meant to be used by the three main branches of the US military, each of which had specific demands. As a result, the aircraft was designed to be a bomber, a fighter and for infantry support. Just to give an example: the A-10 was designed around the seven-barreled GAU-8 Avenger cannon, the most powerful airborne tactical weapon on the planet. It is a gatling type cannon from 30 mm with two firing rates: 2100 or 4200 strokes per minute and can be brought to the maximum firing rate in 0,55 seconds. The ammunition tank carries a maximum of 1350 shots. It is capable of destroying a tank at almost 7 km away
The F-35A is equipped with a Gatling cannon from 25 mm GAU-22 / A with four rotating rods, carried internally. It is capable of firing three thousand shots per minute, with a range of 180 / 220 hits. Beyond the capacity of penetration of the ammunition (inferior to the Avenger), the standard equipment of the F-35A is inferior of almost 10 times in comparison to the A-10.
(photo: Lockheed Martin / US Air National Guard)
