Super Super?

Going with the theme, ‘Hard to See, Hard to Hit, Hard to Kill’, Boeing vice president, F/A-18 and EA-18 Programs Kory Matthews, was on hand at Avalon to discuss the capabilities and potential of the International Roadmap, which offers a number of enhanced capability upgrades to existing and future Super Hornet customers and which in many ways mirrors the US Navy’s planned Super Hornet ‘Flight Plan’ upgrade path.

“At the core of this program was the fact that it was designed with growth in mind, and we believe that is absolutely key to long term relevance, continuing to be able to harvest that designed-in growth,” Matthews explained. “As we’ve been around working with various international customers, understanding their requirements, we have captured those requirements in what we refer to as the International Roadmap. This International Roadmap in fact becomes synergistic with the [US] Navy ‘Flight Plan’, and there are a couple of elements…that we have had discussions with them on”.

While Matthews remained tight-lipped about any of these specific capability “elements” discussed between Boeing and the US Navy, the Flight Plan does include provisions for distributed targeting, added sensor integration, airborne networking, and new Air-to-air and Air-to-ground weapons integration. Dubbed by some as an evolved Super Hornet or a nascent ‘Block III’, Boeing has stepped into the so-called 4th and 5th generation fighter market with an aircraft that fits somewhere in between.

Some commentators have described the International Roadmap as little more than a marketing exercise designed to muddy the waters and distract those nations wavering on whether to make the leap of faith to a fifth generation fighter such as the JSF, or even those considering a European or Russian alternative.

Though not officially designed to challenge the F-35 JSF in pure stealth low observable capability, the International Roadmap does feature signature reducing features such as removable upper conformal fuel tanks (CFT) which carry 3000 pounds of fuel; a centreline mounted weapons pod able to carry a combination of armaments including AMRAAM, JDAM and SDB; an integral infrared search-and-track (IRST) sensor; and a missile and laser warning system. Also proposed are a next generation 3D single screen cockpit display, and uprated F414 Enhanced Performance Engines (EPE) featuring a 20 per cent increase in thrust.

The RAAF has not expressed any formal interest in the proposed International Roadmap, with the official plan still being to replace most of the Super Hornets with a third tranche of F-35s in the 2020s and the possible retaining of a smaller fleet of modified EA-18Gs. But Boeing says the first upgrades would be made available to partner nations by 2015, with the enhanced capabilities able to be retrofitted to Block II aircraft. Given any potential further delays to the JSF program, elements of the International Roadmap could very well be an option for the RAAF.

“What gets particularly exciting I think from a customer perspective I think is when you marry up some of these capabilities, so for example, with the EPE and the CFTs, you’re now looking at extending its combat radius depending on load out, over 900 nautical miles,” Matthews said. “If a customer were to desire, certainly it could be a holistic configuration, but what we see more and more of are the international customers, again based on their specific requirements and needs, asking about specific elements of this overall International Roadmap.

“As far as technology maturity, and should a customer say we want this and want this now, several of these elements could be available even within a matter of two to three years. We’re continuing to mature it.”

With the current Block II variant currently housing two General Electric F414-GE-400 engines, pilots flying the evolved Hornet will no doubt benefit from approximately 20 per cent more thrust out of the proposed EPE variants. Matthews names “significantly reduced acceleration times at altitude” as just one benefit from the uprated engines, as well as increased maintenance times and reduced wear if operated in the same thrust profile as the -400 engines. An improved two-stage, all blisk fan is effectively the mainstay of the EPE, resulting in 10 per cent higher airflow and a higher engine temperature core.

“There are two key elements that make up the EPE…First, an improved core, an improved hot section,” Matthews explained. “The focus there is really on enhanced durability. Just with that improved core, that improved hot section alone, the projections are right now that we enhance the overall life of these engines by about 2000 hours.”

Another point of interest is the proposed next generation glass cockpit, featuring a single piece 11×19 inch Liquid Crystal Touch (LCT) display. Developed from a ‘virtual battlespace model’, aircrews can download real-time imagery and information straight from the battlefield, including the ability to command UAVs from the confines of a cockpit.

“It’s a whole lot more than just glass,” Matthews quipped. “If we did nothing more than bring this 11 by 19 inch piece in, and allowed the aircrews to manipulate their cockpit, personalise their displays, that’s of benefit. But what really brings the bang for the buck here are the advanced situational awareness displays that we can now present on this large format, including 3D displays, that now continue this overall war fighting evolution, turning the warfighter again from a tactics manager to now a battle manager, either in the Super Hornet or in the G [Growler].

“When we bring [aircrews] into our simulator in St Louis and we sit them down and we talk about the cool iPod or iPad features of growing displays, they get excited. But then…when we have them fly with these simulators and those enhanced SA [Situational Awareness] displays, they immediately get it,” Matthews said.

On the evolved Super Hornet’s strike capability, Matthews has no trouble explaining the aircraft’s extensive weapons pod layout. In addition to two AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles on the inside of the doors for air-to-air, the pod can also carry either a 2000lb Mk84, two 500lb class Mk82s, another two AIM-120s, or four to six Small Diameter Bombs. “You now free up weapons stations and bring that to the fight in a highly survivable, low drag configuration.”

It has also been suggested that the International Roadmap Super Hornet may be an option for wavering JSF partner nations, whose governments are now experiencing political and timing difficulties with their decision to commit to the F-35. These include Canada, Denmark, The Netherlands, and possibly Australia.

A key nation to more international orders following the RAAF’s decision will be India and its Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition for 126 aircraft. Boeing unveiled its International Roadmap mock-up at the recent Aero India Airshow in February, giving its strongest indication yet that the development is a distinct possibility if more nations buy into the F/A-18E/F Block II program. Matthews also suggested the Super Hornet could be a direct alternative against the F-35 for the Japanese Air Self Defense Force’s (JASDF) next generation fighter.

“The EPE engine and a few other of those elements are baseline in our offering in India,” he said. “Depending on where Japan goes for example in their F-X competition and what those requirements shape up, likely several of those elements will be offered there as well.”

With the International Roadmap, Boeing has put forward a next generation Super Hornet package that may very well be an affordable alternative to other fighter procurement programs, such as the F-35. With the recent advent of Sukhoi’s T-50 PAK-FA and China’s J-XX, the rapid development of stealth aircraft technology in the fighter market has never been more apparent.

On face value, it would be easy to dismiss the International Roadmap as simply an ageing design playing catch-up with current and emerging fifth generation fighters designed to contend with such a threat posed by China and Russia. That is something which Matthews is quick to address. “Quite frankly, this whole generational context and fifth gen has become not much more than a marketing term. It varies based on who’s talking about it and what specific capabilities are needed, and that’s really at the heart of what we like to focus on. And that is delivering capabilities, delivering those today based on what the customer needs.

“The capabilities that this brings…the conops and how the warfighter likes to use this system, it is…I think the most dominant fighter attack aircraft in the skies.”