F-35 could detect, track and possibly engage ballistic missiles by 2025

Head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, told the Senate appropriations subcommittee on defense that he expects the F-35 to be capable of detecting and tracking ballistic missiles by 2025.

F-35A flight
By U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Donald R. Allen [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Greaves also hinted that the stealth fighter could take down a ballistic missile by having a new “fast missile that’s hung on the bottom of” the fighter.