The F-35 jet's new 500-pound GBU-12 Paveway II guided bomb has been equipped with a "new release logic" that allows the pilot to hardly even think about releasing it, Collin O'Fallon of the 775^th Flight Test Squadron said.

"This logic is called Lead Point Compute," O'Fallon said. The "logic" in this technology "delays the release point of the weapon to ensure the weapon has the available kinematics to guide to and reach the target at its future location."

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The new software determines the characteristics of a moving target, evaluating velocity, speed, and direction, to determine the exact time in which the bomb needs to be fired. The weapons delivery accuracy test was the first from an F-35 in the 3F software configuration, which has incorporated new release to augment its effectiveness against moving targets. That being said, O'Fallon added that the pilot would no longer need to analyze or calculate how fast the target is going and on what direction it is heading. 

"It's doing all the weaponeering for him," O'Fallon noted.

Although the GBU-12 has been in service for a couple of years already, it was only installed on the F-35 after the Pentagon decided that it required a weapon to get rid of moving targets, Sputnik News reported. The GBU-12 was deployed on March 29 at California's Edward Air Force Base.

When flying in stealth mode, the F-35 could carry 3,500 pounds of payloads and 18,000 of firepower on other missions. Its weapons suite also contains a GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, a 350-pound precision guided weapon, AIM-132 short-range air-to-air missiles, and Paveway IV missiles.

Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin's subsidiary Aeroparts said it would expand its production capacity for the F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft. The plane is a next-generation joint strike fighter that is regarded as the most high-tech and "stealthiest" aerial assault weapon in the US. The F-35 Lightning II is expected to replace the F-16 Fighting Falcon, which has been a mainstay of Lockheed's mile-long production line.