Flight

British Navy Test Fighter Jet Equipped With Meteor Missiles

The British Navy tested an F-35B fighter jet equipped with Meteor missiles for the first time

By: Forest Rowe, Journalist

March 17, 2025

The US and UK play dual roles in testing the performance of the Meteor missile in a F-35B

The British Royal Navy and the US Marine Corps played a key role in testing an American F-35B fighter equipped with the UK’s new radar-guided air-to-air Meteor missile. These trials aimed to evaluate the performance of the F-35 when launching the Meteor missile.

Multiple test flights were conducted to gather data on the missile’s functionality when deployed from the F-35’s weapons bay. “The first flight of a UK weapon on an F-35 aircraft marks a significant milestone, demonstrating the successful integration of British defense technology onto a state-of-the-art fighter,” said engineer Lieutenant Lewis Roach, who led the trials.

The Meteor missile is the UK’s premier air-to-air missile, capable of locking onto targets up to 120 miles away and traveling at speeds up to four times the speed of sound.