F-35 – unarmed
“…the JSF is often referred to as a “bomb truck” that will attack ground targets once the skies have been cleared of any enemy fighter threat by dedicated air superiority fighters like the F-22 Raptor and F-15 Eagle.”
I guess the designers really stuck by this logic – especially for the Navy/Marine Corp version of the JSF. Because only the Air Force (CTOL) version will have an internal gun.
[At first I thought it was a trade off between the internal gun and the VTOL system, but even the Marine Corps CTOL version will not have the internal gun]
That seems to be a serious compromise – which I am sure that the pilots will grumble about from the start.
There is a reason that the F-4 Phantom was redesigned to include an internal gun on the ‘E’ model. I guess none of the Lockheed-Martin designers have studied history.
