F-35B Completes First Meteor Missile Release From Its Internal Weapons Bay

An F-35B jettisoned an MBDA Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile from its internal weapons bay on October 7, 2026, the first release of the weapon from an F-35B internal bay, the F-35 Joint Program Office said in a release published November 5. The trial, flown at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, was the first in a series of Meteor jettison flight trials, the program office said, and the missile neither ignited its rocket motor nor activated its control surfaces.

The missile separated safely from the F-35, according to the program office, which said the data help validate the aerodynamic and digital models used to assess weapon-release characteristics before live firings. A combined team of F-35 Integrated Test Force, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and industry personnel prepared and loaded the weapon test asset, the program office said.

MBDA, in its own release of November 5, said the purpose of the trial was to check that the missile separates cleanly without striking fuselage or wing structures or disturbing the aircraft's flight dynamics. The sortie was flown by a Royal Navy F-35 test pilot from the Air and Space Warfare Centre, embedded in the Integrated Test Force, according to MBDA, which named the UK Ministry of Defence, the US Department of Defense, the Italian Ministry of Defence, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman and MBDA itself as the bodies supporting the integration.

Meteor is currently listed as carried by four aircraft types in GlobalMilitary.net's database: the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Dassault Rafale, the Saab JAS 39 Gripen and the KAI KF-21 Boramae. The F-35 appears in the same records with the AIM-120 AMRAAM, the AIM-9 Sidewinder and the AIM-424 as its air-to-air missiles; Meteor is not yet integrated on the type and remains in testing. GlobalMilitary.net compares the AMRAAM against Meteor on its own data, and an earlier GMN explainer set Meteor's ramjet propulsion against AMRAAM's rocket motor.

Thirteen countries operate Meteor according to GlobalMilitary.net's records: Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Four of them also fly or have ordered the F-35. The United Kingdom has 47 F-35s in service and 27 on order in GMN's database. Italy has 57 in service and 75 on order, of which the Italian Navy's F-35Bs account for 10 in service and 13 on order. Germany has one F-35 in service against 34 on order, and Greece has 20 on order and none yet delivered. GMN records 20 F-35 operator or customer countries in all.

MBDA said a series of release profiles over the coming months will confirm safe separation across the F-35's operational envelope, culminating in live firings to verify separation and missile fly-out performance. The program office said the effort moves toward further test events including live missile firings and supports Meteor integration for the UK and Italian F-35B fleets.