Defence Update – Upgrades for the Hornet

The new enhancements were foreshadowed recently by Air Vice Marshal Doug Riding, the Assistant Chief of Air Staff — Materiel. He made an invaluable fact-finding and “getting to know you” three-week tour of North America in May which took in Defence contractors, United States military chiefs and establishments, and the Departments of Defense in both Canada and the USA.

It covered Australian Defence Force equipment and projects like the Black Hawk helicopters, the C-130J Hercules, the F/A-18s (in service with both Canada and the US Navy), the P-3 Orions, F-111 support, and the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Other areas of possible interest in the future covered the F-22 fighter, the proposed Joint Strike Fighter, the USAF E-4B program which is a Boeing 747 configured for national defence command and control, and US military measures concerning reforms in acquisition programs.

But back to the F/A-18 Hornet upgrade. Phase 2C of the HUG has been advanced in the context of Financial Year (FY) 1996-97 with the Phase 1 upgrade because of the maturity of the solutions selected. It covers two system upgrades. The first is to replace the mechanical gyro ASN-130 INS with a ring laser gyro ASN-166 INS to take advantage of its embedded GPS capability and its better reliability. This is considered to be two steps up in capability on the old ASN-130 technology.

The second upgrade under Phase 2C is the replacement of the APX-100 IFF with the APX-111 Combined Interrogator Transponder (CIT).

Phase 1 of the earlier approved Hornet Upgrade includes:

Upgrading the capacity of the Mission Computers from the XN-6 to an XN-8+ version;

Adding a sixth avionics multiplex bus to handle the extra capacity and workload of the XN-8+;

Replacing ARC-182 UHF/VHF radios with jam-resistant ARC-210 models incorporating HAVE QUICK II;

Replacing the ALR-67 Radar Warning Receiver software with a more capable version; and

Conducting Project Definition Studies (PDS) into various radar and electronic warfare (EW) upgrades.

Apart from the already mentioned Phase 2C of HUG, other Phase 2 proposals involve:

Phase 2A — possible radar upgrade;

Phase 2B — possible EW suite upgrade;

Phase 2D — tactical datalink.

Australian Industry Involvement (AII) opportunities for Phases 1 and 2 are limited because of the highly specialised nature of the equipment required.

However, they are expected to offer work in the Integrated Aircraft Software Support Facility (ASSF), software development of computer training packages, Integrated Logistics Support (ILS), and follow-on support.

Phase 2D proposes to add a Link-16 terminal for a high-capacity, jam-resistant data transfer capability. Link-16 will be part of the proposed Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C aircraft equipment suite and the Air Defence Ground Environment (ADGE) Project).

The Force Structure Policy and Programming Committee (FSPPC) has not yet considered the Phase 2A, 2B, and 2D proposals. However, the radar and EW PDS reports and the Phase 2D submission may be considered later this year. Eventual approval most likely would see these enhancements installed in the F/A-18 fleet during 2003 and 2004.