F-35 News. Looks like the "Cuda" has been revamped and Raytheon won.

via FlightGlobal.

Separately, under a $14 million contract awarded on 20 January, Raytheon will begin exploring new missiles under a research and development programme called Small Advanced Capability Missile (SACM).
A second project, called Miniature Self-Defense Munition (MSDM), is perhaps more game-changing – giving fighter aircraft the ability to target incoming missiles, like a ballistic missile defence system.
The air force has said that these small self-protection munitions could be a bridging capability as it develops 360° laser shields for future fighters and bombers, targeted for rollout in the late 2020s.
“SACM will support affordable, highly lethal, small size and weight ordnance with advanced air frame design and synergistic control capabilities for air dominance, enabling high air-to-air load-out,” the contract notice says.
“The MSDM will support miniaturised weapon capabilities for air superiority by enabling close-in platform self-defence and penetration into contested anti-access/area denial environments with little to no impact to payload capacity.”

I am truly amazed at the ability of defense writers to bury the lead.  FG emphasized the fact that the F-35 fired an AIM-9x missile.  Big whoop.  The real story is that we're getting a peek behind the veil and seeing how the USAF, USMC, and other F-35 enthusiast are thinking.

They realize that this airplane blows chunks.  They know that it sucks donkey dick.  So how will they solve the issue?  They're spending EVEN MORE MONEY to TRY and make up for its shortcomings.  Lockheed came up with a dense pack of small air to air missiles but for whatever reason (probably because the DoD knows better) they awarded the contract to Raytheon.

Small air to air missiles?  Miniature missiles for self defense?

Yep.  It can't run, it can't turn, and it can't fly high.  So they're going to develop tools to make this flying piece of dung work.  Problem?  Easy.  The Chinese and Russia will follow the lead on this.  Five years max.  That's how long from fielding to it being neutralized is how long they'll get.

The sad thing?  It will make legacy fighters like the F-15, F-22 (we can call it legacy now) and Super Hornet even more lethal.  Which means that once again we're left with the fact that the F-35 is just not worth the cost.

Sidenote:  I just realized that I BURIED THE LEAD!  They're developing a self defense "munition" for the F-35 right?  So does that mean that even they realize that stealth is not as effective as has been touted by the fan club???  I mean seriously (and yeah...this is a salty post because I'm seeing more and more money diverted to make this plane work) why would the "wonder" fighter need self defense munitions if stealth kept it invisible...and we've been told that if it gets into a WVR fight then the pilot did it wrong!  It should be obvious that the threat aircraft from Russia and China are much more formidable than official statements indicate.