Super jet

Background

The Super Hornet concept was born following the US Navy’s cancellation of the Grumman A-6F Intruder and a reduced buy of F-14D Super Tomcats in the late 1980s, and then the cancellation of the stealthy but overweight and costly A-12 Avenger II in 1991.

More than just an upgrade or enhancement of the F/A-18C, the Super Hornet was derived from one of the many conceptual ‘Hornet 2000’ concepts which proposed a scaled up but all new airframe built with existing late model F/A-18C/D systems. The F/A-18E/F promised an aircraft with a strike reach and payload comparable with that of the A-6E Intruder and A-12, and a fleet defence fighter superior in handling and almost comparable in payload range to the F-14D Tomcat, all in a single airframe.

A $US4.88bn Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract for the Super Hornet was signed in July 1992. Production of the first aircraft commenced in May 1994, and aircraft ‘E1’ made its maiden flight on 29 November 1995. Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) of the aircraft was approved by Congress that year, and E1 moved to the Navy’s test facility at NAS Pax River in February 1996 to commence the flight test and Operational Test & Evaluation (OT&E or OPEVAL) program.

The Super Hornet and was declared operationally effective and operationally suitable in February 2000. The jet’s first deployment was aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2002, and Super Hornets first saw combat in November of that year over Iraq’s southern no-fly zone.

While the first Block 1 configured Super Hornets were basically growth versions of late model F/A-18C/Ds including the Raytheon APG-73 radar, production from Lot 26 onwards switched to the Block 2 model which includes a redesigned forward fuselage ready to accommodate the new APG-79 Advanced Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar and other enhancements.

The first 135 Block 2s were delivered with APG-73s while the APG-79 completed its development and OT&E, and these aircraft are scheduled to be retrofitted with the AESA, while deliveries of new build jets fitted with the AESA commenced in 2007. Those early build Block 1 jets without the forward fuselage enhancements capable of housing the AESA will be mostly relegated to training or buddy tanking duties in US Navy service as Block 2s populate the fleet.

Out Of The Blue

The RAAF’s Super Hornet order came out of the blue to many, particularly as there had been no formal requirement in place for the aircraft, let alone an active project.

Despite the F-35 ostensibly being selected to succeed the F-111 and F/A-18A/B in RAAF service back in 2002, the RAAF had maintained a watching brief on the Super Hornet as a ‘fall back’ alternative to the JSF, while other types such as the Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale were considered to be under-developed and, along with the F-15E, too expensive and poor fits for the current and planned RAAF Order of Battle (ORBAT) for consideration as a bridging fighter. Boeing had pointed out that, despite its more advanced systems, the Super Hornet featured a similar layout and shared many operating concepts with the classic Hornet, and that due to long established relationships with the US Navy, Boeing, Raytheon and General Electric through the classic Hornet program, transitioning to the Super Hornet for the RAAF would be a far easier exercise than other types.

Government concerns over F-111 operating costs, availability, and maintainability risks coincided with delays to the F-35 program, and the Super Hornet option was taken off the shelf. Following several briefs by Boeing officials to then Defence Minister Brendan Nelson and senior defence officials in mid to late 2006, a decision was made to buy 24 F/A-18Fs as a Bridging Air Combat Capability (BACC) for the RAAF to “de-risk” the period between the F-111’s retirement in 2010 and the expected F-35 service entry in the mid to late 20-teens.

A contract valued at $2.9 billion was signed in May 2007 for the 24 jets and a package of spares, training and support equipment, while the total cost of the aircraft, maintenance, spares and support, personnel, new facilities, and even fuel and other consumables for the planned 10 year operating period was estimated to be about $6.1 billion.

The first RAAF Super Hornet, A44-201, was rolled out at Boeing’s St Louis facility in July 2009. Following a flight test period by US Navy pilots which included validation of the Australian-specific Instrument Landing Systems (ILS), the first five jets, A44-202 to -206 were handed over to RAAF personnel at NAS Lemoore for a final shake down and acceptance testing in late February and early March this year, before their ferry flight to Amberley from March 18 to 26.

Super Specs

The Super Hornet is 1.3 metres longer than the classic Hornet, and features a 25 per cent greater wing area and a larger leading edge root extension (LEX) for better airflow characteristics and greater controllability at high angles of attack.

The Super can carry a third more fuel, giving it a 41 per cent greater point-to-point range on internal fuel and 50 per cent greater endurance, while its total parts count is two-thirds that of the classic, making it cheaper and easier to manufacture and more economical to support.

The two GE F414 engines in the Super Hornet each develop 97.8kN (22,000lb) of thrust which is 26 per cent more than the F404-GE-400 in the F/A-18A, giving the Super a similar maximum speed to the classic Hornet of about Mach 1.8. The F414 was developed from classic Hornet’s F404, and utilises the core of the A-12’s F412 engine and the hot end of the unsuccessful YF120 flown in YF-22 and YF-23 advanced tactical fighter (ATF) prototypes in the early 1990s.

Not to be underestimated are the many Low Observable (LO) enhancements which make the Super Hornet one of the ‘stealthiest’ conventional aircraft currently in service, as opposed to aircraft designed from the ground up with LO in mind such as the B-2, F-22 and F-35. Significant attention has been paid to detail design and angle alignment of the engine intakes, panel edges, undercarriage doors, and underside vents and heat exchanger intakes to give the F/A-18E/F a greatly reduced Radar Cross Section (RCS) compared to previous aircraft. Radar Absorbent Material (RAM) has also been applied to the intakes and other areas of the airframe to further reduce the RCS, and a ‘radar blocker’ is buried deep inside each intake tunnel to shield the highly reflective engine fan faces.

Another key role for which the US Navy’s Super Hornet has been adapted is that of an organic or ‘buddy’ tanker for other carrier borne aircraft, and the RAAF has also ordered a number of refuelling kits for its Super Hornets.

For the buddy tanking mission, an F/A-18F can be fitted with up to four 2200 litre (480 USgal) auxiliary wing tanks and a 1500 litre (330 USgal) centreline A/A42R-1 aerial refuelling store (ARS), thus doubling its internal fuel capacity and giving it the ability to offload up to 10,300 litres (2250 USgal) of fuel to other hose and drogue equipped aircraft whilst still carrying air-to-air ordnance itself.

With buddy refuelling on the outbound leg, a strike configured Super Hornet has a similar combat payload range to that of an F-111C, but with far greater penetration due to its superior sensors and LO characteristics, and without the need for escort fighters.

Super Sensors

The primary sensor of the Block 2 Super Hornet is the Raytheon AN/APG-79 AESA radar, arguably the most advanced and capable fighter radar in operation anywhere in the world.

Key to its advanced capabilities is its active agile electronic beam which scans though more than 1000 separate nodules in a fixed faceted radar face, allowing the radar beam to be steered instantaneously and to track multiple airborne and ground targets simultaneously at two to three times the range and resolution of the APG-73.

The AESA beam also has high resolution synthetic aperture (SAR) radar and mapping modes, Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) and track capabilities, as well as sea search modes for finding objects as small as wooden fishing boats or even submarine periscopes.

“The crown jewel of the integrated sensor suite is the AESA radar,” Dave Goold, former US Marine Corps F/A-18 pilot and now Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems’ Director of Business Development, F/A-18 Programs told Australian Aviation. “Once it has a radar contact, it’s immediately a weapons quality track. In the past you used to have to scan a target several times before you could get a weapons quality track, so apart from giving you greater range and more targets, it gives you more time to assess the situation and then prosecute the attack. In fact, your radar is now seeing targets at greater ranges than your weapons are capable of engaging, where as in the past you would probably be inside the maximum envelope of the weapon as you were searching for contacts.”

In the networked environment, the F/A-18F can act as a command and control node, with its AESA picture securely datalinked to other airborne platforms, as well as to ships and even troops on the ground to enhance their situational awareness. Indeed, mixed Super and classic Hornet strike packages will be a key Concept of Operations (CONOPS) the RAAF will exploit in order to keep the RAAF’s classic Hornets and their new cockpit displays and Link-16 datalinks as tactically relevant for as long as possible.

“We have a huge advantage in having a small fleet which is fully fitted with all the required elements to make the most out of that force multiplying,” explained GPCAPT Steve Roberton, newly appointed Officer Commanding 82WG. “So what that means is, very early on we’ll be using our ACG (Air Combat Group) FCI (Fighter Combat Instructor) tactical development forum, and we wont be focussing on how to get the most out of Super as much as how to get the most out of mixed packages of classic and Super Hornets as well as Wedgetail (AEW&C), special forces, naval assets and everything else that’s out there.”

“And when you tie AESA to the ALR-67(V)3 Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) and you fully integrate the two, you offer the aircrew total situational awareness,” Goold continued. “What this level of integration also does is provide the aircrew with a force multiplication factor which we haven’t really seen before with other aircraft. Historically with older systems you would talk about numbers of aircraft you would send on a mission, but now we’re talking about the number of missions a single aircraft can complete.”

The Raytheon ALR-67(V)3 digital RWR provides enhanced survivability and situational awareness and greater levels of integration compared to previous generation systems. The ‘V3’s channelised receiver architecture can detect radar emitters in high pulse density, and can intercept faint distant signals despite interference from strong nearby transmitters. It also allows for a more comprehensive threat library to be loaded and the flexibility to load complex training libraries to simulate realistic threat scenarios.

“The key benefit of the V3 is you get a much better and more accurate direction of arrival, where in the past you might have an idea that something is in a general quadrant,” Goold explained. “And then you have the ability to time that to work with other sensors on board the aircraft to work seamlessly in a very secure environment. What also makes the V3 so interesting is the RAAF has selected it for the classic Hornets, so now they’ll have a commonality not only operationally, but also logistically and support wise. The RAAF now has the ability to tailor its requirements based on regional threats, so it’s a great opportunity for the RAAF to realise synergies between the classic and the new Super Hornets – that’s a huge capability!”

The main optical sensor of the Super Hornet is the Raytheon AN/ASQ-228 Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infra Red (ATFLIR) pod. Built along the same mould line as the older generation AAS-38 Nite Hawk pod formerly operated by RAAF classic Hornets, the ATFLIR is the only FLIR pod cleared for use aboard the Super Hornet.

The 191kg ATFLIR pod combines Electro Optical (EO) and Infra Red (IR) sensors for navigation and targeting with a powerful laser designator, and is fully integrated into the Super Hornet’s weapons and navigation system allowing it to provide targeting data to the mission system for GPS guided weapons. It has a slant range of about 50km from altitudes of 50,000 feet or more, and provides three to five times greater imagery resolution of targets in clear air or at night, or through cloud, smoke or dust than previous generation FLIR pods.

Despite the RAAF ordering the rival Northrop Grumman Litening AT FLIR pod for its classic Hornets just a few years ago, this pod has had a troublesome introduction to RAAF service, especially when mounted on the left shoulder Station 4 mount with its close proximity to weapons or auxiliary fuel tanks carried on wing Station 3. So in order to gain a wider field of regard, the RAAF has been carrying the Litening AT on the centreline Station 5 with great effect, but this configuration results in airspeed limitations and means giving up a potential weapons or auxiliary fuel station.

Interestingly, Dave Goold offered that the smaller diameter ATFLIR could be mounted on the RAAF’s classic Hornets with only the addition of a streamlined adaptor unit for Station 4, and that this would provide logical economies of scale and operational and logistics synergies within ACG.

“There would not be any integration work required because ATFLIR is fully integrated with the OFP (Operational Flight Program) software for the mission computers, so it would literally be a plug and play on the classics,” he said.

“We’ve been working with the RAAF for a number of years, and we’ve been pretty well tied in with developing additional capabilities and enhancements for the classics.”

Working in conjunction with the RWR is the Super Hornet’s comprehensive ALQ-214 Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures (IDECM) Radio Frequency Countermeasures (RFCM) suite, and the new BAE Systems ALE-55 Fibre Optic Towed Decoy (FOTD).

The IDECM RFCM system provides three layers of defence; suppression to deny, delay and degrade adversary acquisition and tracking; deception to mislead guided weapons away from the aircraft if a track solution is obtained and a launch occurs; and end-game seduction capabilities with the rear fuselage-mounted FOTD being reeled out behind the aircraft and becoming the preferred target of adversary missiles.

Whilst the RAAF’s Super Hornets have been delivered with the IDECM RFCM system fitted, the ALE-55 is still undergoing OT&E with the US Navy and is a year or two away from service acceptance, but is expected before the RAAF declares FOC in late 2012.

“We elected not to go to the (previous generation) ALE-50 towed decoy – we’re going straight to the 55,” said GPCAPT Roberton. “We’ve not operated a towed decoy in the RAAF before and, with the advantages of the ALE-55 over the 50 being that much smarter and more advanced, we didn’t see a great deal of benefit in going to an interim step in the ALE-50.”

When deployed behind the Super Hornet, the FOTD has variable drag fins for aerodynamic stability and is able to remain employed during high speed or slow high angle of attack manoeuvring. It’s deception signals are generated onboard the aircraft by the ALQ-214 and transmitted down the fibre optic tow line to the FOTD, and if not destroyed or damaged, it can be retrieved for re-use as opposed to previous generation decoys which had to be jettisoned prior to landing.

Super Weapons

Because the RAAF wanted a risk free off-the-shelf capability in the Super Hornet, it elected to buy US Navy-common weapons in the AIM-9X air-to-air missile and JSOW GPS guided glide weapon instead of attempting to integrate the European ASRAAM and troubled JASSM missiles from its classic Hornet fleet.

Despite its similar designation, the AIM-9X bears little external resemblance to the AIM-9M ‘Mike’ Sidewinder which was previously operated on RAAF classic Hornets, and is still carried by the soon-to-be-retired F-111s, but internally shares the ‘Mike’s’ proven rocket motor, warhead and fuse.

Externally, the AIM-9X dispenses with the previous version’s forward rollarons and rear fixed fins, and now has all-moving control surfaces in the rear, thus giving it less drag and greater range. The new missiles are delivered fully assembled in a container with an external umbilical interface, so software can be uploaded and systems health checks conducted from outside the container without disturbing the missiles.

“The AIM-9M is a third gen IR (infra red) missile – it’s the last of the analogue missiles,” explained Jeff White, Business Development Manager for Air Warfare Systems, Raytheon Missile Systems. “AIM-9X is a fifth gen missile – the first of the digital missiles, which means it’s all reprogrammable. The big differences are, the AIM-9X has thrust vector control and a high off boresight capability, and it has an imaging IR seeker as opposed to the AIM-9M’s spinning reticle.”

The RAAF has ordered the AIM-9X Block I missile for its Super Hornets, while Raytheon will soon switch production to the Block II development. Block II will see the Sidewinder’s arming handle removed and an ignition safety device added, as well as a lock on after launch and datalink capability added. “Australia was smart enough to jump in right at the tail end of Block 1,” White said. “The difference is the Block I is tried and proven – we’ve made almost 4000 of them and have over a million captive carry flight hours. Block I is also going to be the first missile integrated on JSF, so Australia is all set to go in that regard. That said, we’ll be stopping production of Block Is soon due to obsolescence issues, so if Australia wants more they’ll have to buy Block II.”

The AGM-154C/C-1 Joint Stand Off Weapon (JSOW) is a GPS guided LO glide weapon with a range of more than 130km. After launch, folding wings pop out of the weapons upper fuselage to provide sufficient lift to glide downrange.

Originally developed to attack fixed land targets in JSOW A form with the BLU-11 penetrating warhead, the JSOW B anti-armour weapon, and the JSOW C with a seeker and two-stage broach warhead, the weapon is now being developed as the Block III C-1 variant with the addition of a datalink for the anti-shipping mission.

The RAAF has ordered the JSOW C and C-1 variants. “We have delivered the JSOW Cs to Australia, and will be delivering the first C-1s later this year,” Raytheon Missile Systems’ JSOW Program Director, Phyllis McEnroe told AA. “The Super Hornet can carry four JSOWs, and Australia is the first international customer to get C-1. We are also currently integrating the C into the JSF, and it’s important to note JSOW will fit both internally and externally on the JSF.”

A further development of the 500kg JSOW C-1 is the JSOW ER (Extended Range) which adds a small jet engine within the original weapon’s mould line. Despite much interest the ER is not currently funded by the US Navy, but Raytheon has been conducting self-funded risk reduction work in recent years culminating in a successful test launch last October which saw the weapon fly more than 400km.

“We believe we could start production 30 months after being funded to develop the ER,” said Phyllis McEnroe. “We are spending some money this year to design the fuel system to take the prototype to a production representative variant, and are planning to use the 300lb Maverick missile warhead in the ER which has been developed for the anti-ship mission.”

Whilst Raytheon says they have briefed the RAAF on the JSOW ER, Ms McEnroe gave no indication of any formal interest in the weapon from Australia at this time. “I think everyone’s intrigued about what ER can do, but you’d have to ask the Australian Government if they’re interested.”

Grizzly Rhinos?

As part of the Super Hornet deal, the RAAF wisely elected to spend an additional $40 million pre-wiring its final 12 F/A-18Fs for possible conversion down the track to an EA-18G Growler or ‘Grizzly’ configuration.

The pre-wiring effort ensured the necessary conduits and looms were installed during production so the airframe and wings wouldn’t need to be “cracked open” for installation at a later date.

“It needs to be very clear this is a decision for government and there is no commitment to it at this time,” GPCAPT Roberton told us. “But if we did it, we would be a very realistic and phased approach. Initially we would probably do a ‘Growler Lite’ conversion where we would do ESM (Electronic Support Measures) only with SATCOM (Satellite Communications) on the jet, ESM pods on the wingtips, and a Weapons Replaceable Assembly (WRA) in the nose where the gun would go. Just this would give the aircraft an amazing ESM capability and really exemplifies that tactical command and control node capability.

“The next step could be ‘Growler Low’ where we went to a low band EA (Electronic Attack) capability as well as full spectrum electronic surveillance on a tactical platform. And the third step if it were chosen would be a full spectrum EA and electronic surveillance capability.”

A move to a full-house EA-18G capability would likely involve a collaborative arrangement between the RAAF and the US Government on the planned Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) program, as the ALQ-99 pods currently used on US Navy Growlers and US Marine Corps EA-6B Prowlers are suffering from obsolescence issues and limited availability.

More Than A Bridging Capability

The RAAF has clearly demonstrated that they see the Super Hornet as far more than a fill-in capability just to keep Amberley’s carports full and personnel occupied until the JSF finally arrives. They are clearly taking the Super Hornet very seriously – not only is it a comprehensive and extremely capable combat aircraft in its own right, but will be a qualitative force multiplier for the rest of the ADF’s ORBAT.

It remains to be seen whether the F/A-18Fs will be retired as originally planned in the early 2020s as the JSF comes on line, or whether they will be retained or perhaps even supplemented with additional Super Hornets as their capabilities are fully realised.