Talk:F-35B Lightning II/@comment-71.92.198.163-20111024023351/@comment-261061-20111026005238

The pylons aren't supposed to be stealthy. They're supposed to provide the JSF with the ability to carry weapons that can't be carried in the internal bays, like AGM-88 HARMs (LAGMs), AGM-158 JASSMs, and large guided weapons that won't fit in the internal bays. Stealth pylons or not, you can't make the missiles stealthy. Also, the F-35C has bigger control surfaces because they provide better control at the slow speeds required for carrier landing operations (CTOL), nfot for Short-Takeoff and Landing (STOL). Also, the weapons pylons are for ALL variants to facilitate carriage of outsize ordnance, as I stated above. So no matter what version Namco wanted to use, A, B, or C, if they wanted LAGMs they were going to have to use the pylons.