The jet came down the approach to Decimomannu with its gear out and a stranger under its belly. On the centreline of an Italian Air Force F-35B coded 32-14 hung a slim, angular fairing: the GPU-9/A gun pod, the only gun available to the short take-off and vertical landing variant.

Spotter Diego Mor (@_diego.spotter_ on Instagram) photographed the jet as it landed at the Sardinian base, northwest of Cagliari. His picture appeared on 1 October on the Italian site Coccarde Tricolori and on The Aviationist, which dates it to 30 September and calls it the first known visual confirmation of the pod with an F-35 operator outside the United States.

Coccarde Tricolori places the aircraft with the 101° Gruppo, the F-35B squadron of the 32° Stormo at Amendola. Italy’s purchase of the pod had been expected. Until now, nobody had shown it on an Italian jet.

Four Barrels, One Belly Pod

Inside the pod sits a GAU-22/A, a four-barrel 25mm Gatling gun built by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems. Derived from the five-barrel GAU-12/U, it is more than 40 pounds lighter and takes 20 percent less volume, according to its maker, and it fires at up to 3,300 rounds per minute. The F-35A carries the same gun internally, with about 180 rounds.

The F-35B and the carrier-based F-35C have no internal gun, so theirs comes in a centreline pod holding 220 rounds, around four seconds of firing. The pods are bought from General Dynamics, and Denmark’s Terma designed and builds their metal-and-composite shell under a General Dynamics contract awarded in 2004. The shape keeps the radar signature down, yet the pod still makes the jet less stealthy and adds weight and drag, so it generally stays off when the F-35 must be at its stealthiest.

A subtlety for purists: the B and C pods look alike but are not interchangeable. The F-35B uses the GPU-9/A and the F-35C the GPU-8/A, because their mounting fairings differ, according to a 2024 Pentagon test report quoted by TWZ. Both carry the same gun and the same 220 rounds.

Why a Jump Jet Wants a Gun

The US Marine Corps has shown what the pod is for. During the withdrawal of American troops from Somalia in December 2020 and January 2021, Marine F-35Bs on call for close air support from the assault ship USS Makin Island flew with pods fitted, and the US Navy released footage of one making a live-fire gun run into the sea.

Drones add a newer argument. The pod’s gun can engage targets in the air as well as on the ground, and the US military wants cheaper ways to bring drones down. By TWZ’s count, an AIM-9X costs around $450,000 and an AMRAAM around $1 million.

The pod has not been flawless. In March 2021, a 25mm round exploded just after leaving the muzzle during a night close air support training sortie over Arizona’s Yuma Range Complex, damaging the underside of a Marine F-35B. The pilot brought the jet back safely.

Official U.S. Navy footage from December 2020: Marine Corps F-35Bs fly from USS Makin Island off Somalia, and one makes a live-fire gun run into the sea with its GPU-9/A pod.

Italy’s Two-Service F-35B Fleet

Italy splits its F-35Bs between two services, 20 for the Aeronautica Militare and 20 for the Marina Militare, within a planned F-35 fleet of 115. The Air Force jets fly with the 32° Stormo at Amendola, in Apulia. According to the Air Force, the wing has been the only unit in Europe to operate both the F-35A and the F-35B since February 2020.

On 1 July 2025 the wing reactivated the 101° Gruppo to fly the F-35B alongside the F-35A-equipped 13° Gruppo. The squadron’s previous mount, the AMX, carried a 20mm M61 cannon in its lower fuselage. Its new jets have to wear their gun on the outside.

The Aeronautica Militare marks the reactivation of the 101° Gruppo with F-35Bs at Amendola on 1 July 2025.

The Navy’s F-35Bs are replacing AV-8B+ Harriers aboard the carrier Cavour. A weapons plan published by the Italian government in July 2024 already listed ammunition for the GAU-22/A, but whether the Navy is flying with the pod yet is unclear.

In August 2024, with Cavour moored at Yokosuka in Japan, Admiral Enrico Credendino, then the Navy’s chief of staff, declared the carrier’s embarked F-35B component initially operational: six Navy jets and two from the 32° Stormo. The Navy’s statement set out the ambition plainly.

The Questions Over Sardinia

Decimomannu was no random stop. The base is home to the Air Force’s air-firing test and standardisation unit, which runs the Capo Frasca range, and it reports to the joint test and training range at Salto di Quirra. NATO air forces have trained there since the Royal Canadian Air Force set up an Air Weapons Training Installation in 1957.

A gun-armed F-35B landing there invites the obvious questions. Did 32-14 fire its gun? If it did, was it routine pilot training or an operational test and evaluation campaign? For now, neither answer is public.

Is Italy truly the first export user of the pod? It is the first one seen. Britain’s Ministry of Defence answered the question for its own F-35Bs in 2020.

There is no public information on Japan’s F-35Bs, delivered since 2025, and Singapore’s first F-35Bs are still awaited at their training base in Arkansas. The carrier-based F-35C flies only with the US Navy and Marine Corps. So the honest wording is first publicly seen: en finale over Sardinia, the Italian F-35B gun pod has made its début, and whether it has yet spoken over the island’s ranges is another matter.

Sources: The Aviationist, 1 October 2026; Coccarde Tricolori, 1 October 2026; General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, GAU-22/A data sheet, August 2024; Terma, Terma and F-35 brochure; TWZ, 24 December 2020, 24 March 2021, 16 July 2024, 20 December 2024 and 25 April 2025; Aeronautica Militare, 13 September 2024 and 4 July 2025; Naval News, 31 August 2024; Ares Difesa, 28 August 2024; UK Defence Journal, 10 June 2020; Defense News, 6 February 2026; Talk Business & Politics, 30 September 2026; The Defense Post, 18 September 2024; DVIDS / F-35 Joint Program Office, 31 January 2018; DVIDS / U.S. Marine Corps, 28 September 2020; U.S. Navy video, December 2020; Wikipedia: Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II operators, Decimomannu Air Base, AMX International AMX; Italian Wikipedia: Aeroporto di Decimomannu