Spud I thought the whole Idea of sharing the same planform, eliminated redundancy in tests? Didnt the A,B already do this?

While other F-35s have carried external munitions, this is the first time they were dropped. Considering that external stores are not part of Block 2B it makes sense that thate would wait till all Block 2B tests were done before doing these.

Another thing to consider is that along with functionality tests (which can be shared), the F-35C has a larger wing which necessitates unique separation tests apart form the F-35A/B.

October 02, 2015

https://www..com/news/detail/c-conducts-first-external-weapons-release-with-not-one-but-four-500-pou

For the first time an released an external weapon from its wings, not once, but four times during an external weapons separation test on 23 September 2015.

The aircraft, CF-2, released four 500-pound GBU-12 laser guided inert bombs from its wings’ pylons during consecutive test runs over the Atlantic Test Range. The Patuxent River Integrated Test Force conducted the flight and noted all four weapon separations were successful and confirmed the accuracy of the predicted release trajectory. The ability to do quadruple separation tests during a single flight demonstrates the program’s ability to efficiently test, and advances the ’s future capability to release multiple weapons on a single pass.

props to lamoey

Perhaps caves are under that field? So there would be no point in hitting the entrace if you can hit the main cavern.

Nope, the field has a stream running through it which means that any caves that they tried to make would be below the water table and would flood.

If they were trying to hit the caves in the 2nd strike, they missed again.

What did that empty field ever do to deserve this kind of punishment :rolleyes:

The difference in crosshairs is likely due to it displaying a different mode like zoom. For it to be three different views of the same attack would mean that Russia was using three UAVs in very close proximity at the same time. The US does not even do that.

Looking closer at the shadows show that no only are the length of the shadows different (shadow length on the ledge in the red circles below) , the angle of the shadows is different (red line below).

As further proof of it being two separate attacks on the hill, in the top red square no shrapnel hit while in the lower pic the red square is full of hits.

What are you talking about? The first strike he was looking at the hill. The second time the building.

There were two strikes on the hill, not two views of the same strike. Look at the shrapnel pattern on the hill and you can tell that they were two different hits. That’s what I meant by “twice”.

what kind if a weapon is that ??!!

1st and 2nd bombs fell short in the valley area at the bottom of the screen. The small white puffs are dust kicked up by the shrapnel.

The 3rd series of impacts are 5-6 bombs impacting in an empty field above the intended target building.

Based on other video from the rebels that shows the planes making the attack run, they were dropping iron bombs in a horizontal attack run.

Horizontal attack & iron bombs explains why they didn’t hit sh*t.

Or….the aircraft dropping the bomb was aiming at something else than the crosshairs of the observation drone….

The one that is “hundreds of meters away” is clearly the UAV operator failing to zoom in on the actual bomb strike, instead all we see if residue hitting the hill nearby.

So the UAV operator was aiming at the wrong target THREE TIMES?