Issue 263: Super Debut

Boeing rolls out the RAAF’s first ‘Rhino’

The first of 24 F/A-18F Super Hornets for the RAAF was revealed at a rollout ceremony at Boeing’s St Louis facility on July 8.

The ceremony (really a curtain unveiling in a hangar as opposed to a rollout in the literal sense of the term) was attended by Chief of Air Force, AIRMSHL Mark Binskin, Air Combat Transition Office (ACTO) head and future officer commanding of 82WG, GPCAPT Steve Roberton, and 1SQN commanding officer, WGCDR Glen Braz, plus about 1500 Boeing officials and workers including Boeing Integrated Defense Systems president Jim Albaugh, members of 1SQN currently based at NAS Lemoore in California for conversion to the aircraft, and the Mayor of St Louis, Francis Slay.