Super Hornet F18 F

February 25, 2009
Today was Electronic Warfare Appreciation Day at Andrews AFB. The base hosted a sort of petting zoo for high-tech jamming systems. I noticed a Boeing EA-18G parked on the side, and struck up a conversation with the pilot.

As we chatted about interference cancellation systems, I couldn't help but notice an odd decal decorating the side of the fuselage. I asked the pilot: What's that aircraft decal on the fuselage?

"That's an F-22," he said.

Well, why is it there?

"Because this is the EA-18G that killed an F-22," he explained.

Um, really?

Alas, after that bombshell, the conversation quickly dried up. I did learn the EA-18G kill was courtesy of a well-timed AIM-120 AMRAAM shot. And I learned the simulated combat exercise took place at Nellis AFB. How the EA-18G escort jammer got the shot, and whether its jamming system played a role in the incident were not questions the pilot was prepared to answer.

For the spotters, the aircraft pictured above is EA-1, the first of two Lot 27 F/A-18Fs converted into flying prototypes for the EA-18G program.

La marine américaine a décidé d'immobiliser 104 chasseurs-bombardiers F/A-18 A àD Hornet suite à la détection de fissures, apparemment entre le fuselage et les ailes. L'ensemble des appareils touchés va faire l'objet d'une visite technique afin de déterminer les causes et trouver les remèdes à ce problème. Actuellement, l'US Navy exploite un peu plus de 600 F/A-18 A/D Hornet. Conçu pour l'interception et l'assaut, cet appareil, produit par Boeing, a effectué son premier vol en 1983 et est embarqué sur les porte-avions américains. Ces derniers mettent aussi en oeuvre des F/A-18 E et F Super Hornet, plus récents (1996), et qui ne présentent pas de souci.

The first five of 24 [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] for the Royal Australian Air Force have arrived in Australia at its largest air force base, Amberley in Queensland.

The F/A-18Fs are Canberra's first new combat aircraft in 25 years.

Australia is the first export customer for the Super Hornet, having signed an A$2.9 billion ($2.6 billion) contract in
2007.

The RAAF expects Super Hornet initial operating capability by December, says Steve "Zed" Roberton, officer in commander of Super Hornet Wing.

The RAAF intends to use its Super Hornets as aircraft to fill the void between the retirement of its [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and the arrival of its [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]Joint Strike Fighter.

The F-111s will go by the end of the year and the F-35 will not arrive until 2014 at the earliest.....

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Royal Australian Air Force pilots landed the service's first five Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet fighters at RAAF Base Amberley on March 26, Boeing announced Sunday. Australia is the jet's first international customer.
"The multi-role Super Hornet is an advanced, networked weapons system that provides a major leap in capability for the RAAF," Group Captain Steven Roberton, commander of the Super Hornet Wing, said during a ceremony at the base, according to a Boeing news release.
Dennis Muilenburg, president and chief executive of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, said: "The men and women of Boeing are honored to provide the next generation in air combat capability to the Royal Australian Air Force and proud to deliver it on time and on budget for all Australians. The arrival of these Super Hornets marks a new chapter in a partnership between Boeing and Australia that has endured for more than 80 years."
Australia announced its intent to acquire 24 Super Hornets in March 2007. The remaining 19 jets are scheduled to arrive in Australia later this year and in 2011.

US DoD agrees to buy 124 F/A-18E/Fs and EA-18Gs over 4 years
The US Department of Defense has agreed to buy 124 F/A-18E/Fs and EA-18Gs manufactured by [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] over the next four years for an undisclosed sum, a source familiar with the deal tells Flightglobal.com.
DoD notified Congress today that it will pursue a package deal called a multi-year procurement. The arrangement locks the government into a long-term contract, and the manufacturer provides a discounted price in exchange for the commitment.
Missouri Rep Todd Akin announced that DoD had approved the third multi-year procurement (MYP) for orders during Fiscal 2010-2014, but he did not provide numbers.
The source, however, confirms the package includes 66 F/A-18E/Fs and 58 EA-18Gs, raising the total fleet 515 F/A-18E/Fs and 114 EA-18Gs after the last deliveries occur in late 2015.

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The cost for the four-year contract has not been disclosed. Boeing released a statement saying the package deal will cost 10% less buying the aircraft in annual lots.
"It is encouraging to see the Navy and DoD come to their senses on this issue, after I have spent two years arguing that a multi-year contract made sense on all fronts," Akin says.
Last year, DoD officials rejected Boeing's initial multi-year proposal, saying the three-year, 89-aircraft bid lowered the cost of procurement by less than 7%.
The Congressional Research Service extrapolated that even if Boeing's offer was extended to cover 150 aircraft over five years, it would still fall slightly short of DoD's 10% threshold for approving multi-year procurement (MYP) contracts.
The deal means that Boeing will continue producing the F/A-18E/F and EA-18G through at least calendar year 2015.
Extending the production line even further will depend partly on ongoing efforts to sell the aircraft abroad. Australia launched the export campaign for both aircraft types, and Boeing also is offering the fighter to India, Japan, Greece, Denmark, Kuwait and Canada.
But the programme's future also depends on the fate of the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] F-35B and F-35C for the Marine Corps and Navy, respectively. Both services intend to buy 680 F-35B/Cs to replace about 620 F/A-18C/Ds and about 120 AV-8B Harriers.
Meanwhile, the navy is also managing a projected fighter shortfall growing to at least 177 jets by FY2017.

Australia impressed by Super Hornet performance

The Royal Australian Air Force is on track to stand up the first [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] operational squadron in December with two extra aircraft than originally planned and a new appreciation for the Super Hornet's capabilities.
A fleet of 24 F/A-18Fs will replace the RAAF's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] F-111 on an interim basis. Delays to the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in 2004 forced the RAAF to acquire Super Hornets as a stopgap in 2006. But the F/A-18Fs are due to be retired by 2021 as the F-35 is delivered.
So far, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] has delivered the first five F/A-18Fs to 1 Sqn at RAAF Amberley, with as many as nine more jets arriving before initial operational capability is declared in December. The F-111 is scheduled for retirement on 2 December.

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Despite the Super Hornet's short-term service plan, the multi-role fighter has already surprised the RAAF leadership with its advanced capabilities.
"It's a little bit embarrassing for me," says Gp Capt Steve Roberton, commander of 82 Wing. "It is fair to say the jet has proven to be more robust and exceeded what we thought."
Roberton pointed to what he considers the aircraft's singular ability to simultaneously track air and ground targets using an array of sensors, including the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] APG-79 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar.
The RAAF intends to bolster the Super Hornet's targeting capability by integrating the joint helmet mounted cueing system ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]) in both the front and back seat. The US Navy has only experimented with that configuration, and the RAAF may be first to adopt JHMCS in both seats.
With a much smaller force structure than the USN, the RAAF believes it can harness the Super Hornet's full capabilities much sooner, Roberton says. Due to training infrastructure limitations, the USN operates the AESA-equipped F/A-18E/F Block II similarly to the Block I Super Hornet and classic F/A-18C/Ds.
The RAAF, however, intends to operate the F/A-18F more like how the US Air Force flies the multi-role Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle, Roberton says.
Although the F/A-18F has impressed, RAAF officials are disappointed the Super Hornet's AESA technology remains unable to perform electronic attack missions in the X-band of the electromagnetic spectrum, Roberton says.
"There are some things the radar does which are not as far along the proposed flight plan that they have as we had hoped," he says. But "it's still better than anything we got".
The RAAF also remains committed to buy F-35s as a permanent replacement for the F-111 and classic F/A-18A/Bs in its inventory. Roberton described the F-35's potential as "phenomenal", but also voiced a note of doubt.
"I don't know how the [F-35] is going to emerge," he says. "What I do know is that the environment and the challenges that emerge in 10 years time are going to be different than what they are now. So we're speculating, I guess."

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