Super Super Hornet?

Shelley Lavender, vice presi-dent and general manager of Boeing’s Global Strike Systems business, described the en- hancements as an “internation-al roadmap” for the jet offering “capabilities that our customers can come in and select based on customer needs” to provide increased situational awareness, survivability and performance. The suite of enhancements will be available for both new build export Super Hornets and ret-rofit to existing Block 2 Super Hornets, including Australia’s F/A-18Fs, and appears to posi-tion Boeing to take advantage of any further missteps with the Joint Strike Fighter program.

Most notable of the en-hancements is the fuel tank shaped weapons pod that is sized to carry internally up to four AIM-120 AMRAAMs or air-to-ground weapons under the aircraft’s centreline hard-point station. Carrying weapons in an enclosed pod, and the shoulder mounted conformal fuel tanks – which would increase range in the order of 10 per cent – are evidently aimed at significantly reducing the aircraft’s radar signature, compared to carrying exter-nal weapons and traditional underwing fuel tanks. While this would not give the Super Hornet a radar cross section anything like a fifth generation fighter’s, it would still offer a dramatic improvement over an existing Super Hornet loaded with external weapons and fuel tanks.

Other options would include Boeing’s ‘Next Generation’ fighter cockpit with its large colour 28x48cm touchscreen, the 20 per cent more powerful General Electric F414 En-hanced Performance Engines, spherical missile and laser warning receivers, and an IRST sensor mounted in a fairing beneath the nose.

Boeing has not detailed the cost of the improvements, and Lavender said she was not able to detail “specific plans” for funding the development of the improvements “at this time”, but says the Next Gen cockpit could be available for fitting to Super Hornets around 2013-15, while the other capa-bilities could be available in the 2015-17 timeframe.

Boeing is currently negotiat-ing on a final multi-year buy for 124 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers for the US Navy that would take Super Hornet production through to mid next decade, but Boeing is confident that the international roadmap enhancements will increase the Super Hornet’s attractiveness to international customers, and help keep the aircraft in production into the 2020s on the back of export sales.

“We believe the [Super Hor-net] line will be hot and run-ning out through the 2020s,” Lavender said.

But no doubt the improve-ments are also being developed with an eye to at least offering the upgrades to the US Navy for its current planned Super Hornet fleet, should new delays and or cost increases affect the F-35 JSF program. Boeing says all the improvements are aircraft carrier ‘cat and trap’ compatible. Similarly, while the RAAF remains committed to the concept of the Super Hor-net as a ‘bridging’ fighter until its own F-35s enter service, these enhancements could well prove of interest to Australia should the JSF program be significantly delayed or a deci-sion is made to keep the Super Hornets in operation longer than the current planned 10 year service life.

Lavender described the Super Hornet improvements as the same “evolutionary approach” of “low risk technology insertion” that has seen Boeing develop improvements for its F-15E under the F-15SE Silent Eagle program. Those efforts, alongside any future F/A-18, F-15 and F-22 modernisa-tion programs, are aimed at keeping Boeing’s Global Strike Systems’ production lines busy until new programs which Boeing aims to bid for come on line. Those opportuni-ties could include the USN’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) UCAV late this decade, and early-mid next decade the USN’s Next Gen Air Dominance program (for-merly F/A-XX, to replace the F/A-18E/F), and the USAF’s T-X advanced trainer and Long Range Persistent Strike (bomber) requirements and a possible F-22 replacement program.

Interestingly, Lavender’s presentation at Farnborough showed a chart that suggested Boeing is currently building a “proprietary” strike weapon system. When pressed by journalists for details on that program, Lavender would only say, “I have nothing further for you on that. ” The Silent Eagle program meanwhile is continuing to progress with the successful launch of an AMRAAM test round from the conformal weapons bay (CWB) Boeing is developing for the F-15SE fit-ted to its F-15E1 development aircraft.

The test, conducted on July 14 from Point Mugu NAS in California, saw the F-15E1 test aircraft launch the AMRAAM successfully from the CWB. The firing followed a success-ful demonstration flight on July 8 in which the conformal bay doors were opened and the missile deployed into the airstream.

The CWBs will each have two internal bays in their for-ward section capable of carry-ing AMRAAM and AIM-9X air-to-air missiles or 250 and 500kg JDAM GPS guided bombs, while fuel will be car-ried in the aft sections.

The demonstrator aircraft is yet to be fitted with other ad-vances planned for the F-15SE such as the canted vertical sta-bilisers, an advanced EW sys-tem, and extensive application of low observable treatments in the forward section, and may not be until a launch order and the associated development funding is received.

Boeing has received approval from the US Department of State to market the aircraft to South Korea, and there is reported to be some interest in the F-15SE from Saudi Arabia, Israel and Japan.