This is a major milestone. The typical weapon of choice has been the 500-pound Mk-82 for decades, and the plane was designed to carry the SDB small diameter bomb internally which weighs in at much less than that. Pickling off a 2000 pounder from the internal bay says a lot about the flexibility of the airframe. The video in the link below is worth watching, since it also shows a few of the tests that are used to build up to this kind of stores clearance.
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-f-35-lockheed-martin-20121017,0,6197167.story
The same test team apparently followed the air-to-ground clearance work with an air-to-air AMRAAM release just a few days later.
http://blogs.star-telegram.com/sky_talk/2012/10/f-35a-test-aircraft-successfully-completes-air-to-air-missile-release-test.html
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