Still Super?

Boeing’s F/A-18E/F and EA-18G program director, Mike Gibbons, has been making the case vociferously that the fifth gen F-35’s stealthiness will be precipitously eroded, if not nullified, by rapid advances in the power of ground-based radars and aircraft sensors. The diminished radar cross-section of the Advanced Super Hornet, when combined with the Growler’s domination of the electronic battlespace, Gibbons argues, provides a hedge against F-35 cost growth and claimed looming vulnerability in the RF spectrum.

Certainly Gibbons is upbeat about prospects of further sales of the Growler to the US Navy (and with good reason – the USN has signalled its intention to procure a further 22, which are as yet unfunded), and the service has responded positively to the results of the Advanced Super Hornet’s initial series of flight tests.

Flight testing

Earlier this year, Boeing and its industry partners completed flight testing on a leased US Navy Block II F/A-18F that had been configured with a number of features available to present and future customers of the Super Hornet: the enclosed weapons pod (EWP), Northrop Grumman’s conformal fuel tanks (CFTs), and a suite of signature reduction measures, touted as having halved the aircraft’s RCS.

Ground-based testing of other Roadmap capability upgrades is currently underway, with Boeing ready, willing and able to bring them to market. Speaking to Australian Aviation during a recent visit, Gibbons offered his observations on the current state of both aircraft’s ongoing development.

Reflecting on the Advanced Super Hornet’s lower observability, Gibbons noted that: “We achievedgreater than a 50 per cent reduction, and that’s on top of a signature of the aircraft that was already very good and effective.

“People were actually quite happy with the signature profile of the Super, but we looked at what would be truly beneficial in the year 2030 and beyond, and we started to target for that. That’s what the ASH was designed to achieve. A signature reduction that gives it the ability to dominate A2G or A2A (air-to-ground, air-to-air) in a 2030 timeframe. When we looked at those targets we took a Super Hornet into our test ranges and identified where some of the hot spots were on the aircraft and simply eliminated those a little bit at a time. I can’t talk about how we did it everywhere, but some of it involves the application of our proprietary coating material in the right spots on the aircaft. ” At this stage, Gibbons noted, no formal offer had been made to Australia regarding the Advanced Super Hornet.

“Australia is in a unique position in the Super and Growler programs, so we don’t need to provide Australia with a formal offer. Australia works in concert with the USN and Boeing on an ongoing basis to talk about capabilities that are potentially . . . out there, or ones that are already firmly planted in the (US Navy’s spiral upgrade) ‘flight plan’, so Australia does not need anything from Boeing on these capabilities for us to already be in discussion about what we’re doing. We’re in constant dialogue. ” In reality, given that the Super Hornet was procured under a FMS case, Australia would no doubt opt in on any spiral upgrade program under the US Navy’s flight plan for the jet as a matter of course.

For now, however, Gibbons is content to reflect on a flight test program completed successfully. “Recently, [US Navy F/A-18 program director] CAPT Frank Morley mentioned that the testing was a resounding success and allows the Navy to look at future options. Personally, I stop short of saying it exceeded expectations because we expected to do as well as we did, but being able to prototype in 10 months and hit all of our objectives that we were trying to demonstrate is nonetheless remarkable. We are continuing the development of other features, like the advanced crew station with larger display, or the multi-ship data fusion capability which is largely at this point an activity development that we’re working at in laboratories. And General Electric is continuing to refine and develop the enhanced engine, and they’re doing that in partnership with USN. ”

Enhanced performance engine

Another Advanced Super Hornet upgrade option is General Electric’s F414 Enhanced Performance Engine (EPE), which marries increased fan airflow with a new high-pressure turbine and innovative six stage, high pressure compressor. The uprated powerplant offers step-changing improvement in the Super Hornet’s kinematic and payload/range performance. Gibbons elaborated: “If you look at the Super in comparison with the legacy Hornet, it was a game-changer in terms of range and perseverance. With the ASH, we’re talking about putting enough gas on the aircraft to add 20 per cent greater range or perseverance time on top of even the Super Hornet, and not just the gas, it’s gas that is so well integrated [in CFTs] with the aircraft that it doesn’t add anything to the stealth, or signature of the aircraft. It maintains our low drag count, I think it’s been said that its cruise point is slightly better – it trims out the aircraft – and it frees up thestations underneath the aircraft as well. The 11 stations we’ve got are still free to hold whatever sensor or weapons we want to carry down there. We’re talking about a game-changer because it adds to the range without any sacrifice to the carriage and RCS and acceleration of the aircraft. And, with a single centreline tank, the CFTs and still carrying weapons externally, it’s range is now over 800 miles.

“Greater range only has upside for an air arm of the RAAF’s size, possessed of relatively few – and therefore constantly in demand – tankers.

“And with a 20 per cent thrust improvement in the engine,” Gibbons continued, “it really makes a difference to the acceleration times. On top of that, it has the same hardware configuration of the engines. That means with a simple flick of the switch, you go to existing throttle settings, which you would use in the majority of times in training in peacetime. That gives you a more robust engine that has phenomenally better operating costs because of lower fuel consumption and much more time between inspections against any potential damage. So, just as a data point, that enhanced engine that could potentially provide that performance improvement, when used for the cost savings, it nets out for the USN’s fleet, if they were to opt for it, for over $5 billion of life-cycle costs over the lifetime of the fleet. ”

Unit cost

The Super Hornet program can justly point to a solid record of on-time and on-budget delivery, and indeed it is this established ability to delivery bigger bang for fewer bucks that Gibbons believes gives the Super the edge over its rivals. With a development budget

Electro-magnetic is a domain we not only want to fight in, we want to dominate it. MIKE GIBBONS

of roughly $1 billion – funded by Boeing, its industry partners and the US taxpayer – the price differential between a baseline F/A-18E/F and its advanced version is set to be surprisingly modest.

“Today’s Super coming off our line, when you add in engines and EW equipment, some of which are furnished to us by the government – we don’t procure directly – is roughly a $55 million jet. To augment that with Advanced Super features, like the CFT, EPE, displays and weapons pod, would add roughly 10 to 15 per cent to the unit cost.

“That’s the intent – to make it affordable. The benefit to our customers is the value we provide. When we wanted to offer an ASH, we said ‘what would customers like to see the most?’ but we had to do so in an affordable manner. Keep costs down and make them retrofittable to the existing fleet. That means any jet bought off the line today could be retrofitted later. Or if you have jets now, they could be retrofitted now. ”

Growler

In May this year, Boeing celebrated the delivery of the 100th Growler to the US Navy, towards a stated total of 135. The previous month, in a presentation called ‘The Perishability of Stealth’ at the US Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference, Gibbons unveiled Boeing’s plans for an Advanced Growler which would help the US and its allies dominate the electromagnetic spectrum. It is this battlespace that his presentation contends “has emerged as a critical 21st century warfighting domain” and one in which the F-35 will be found wanting without an Advanced Growler.

Unveiled during the seminar, the Advanced EA-18G would feature upgrades already tested or being tested (EPE, CFT, enhanced crew stations), plus Northrop Grumman’s Next Generation Jammer, ALQ-218 passive SIGINT sensor upgrades, and Advanced Tactical Data Link (TTNT). As such the evolved EA-18G would offer what Boeing is calling “spectrum dominance” by means of its connectivity to other Growlers and platforms and by cooperative electronic attack.

With stealth (F-35) and aggressive use of airborne electronic attack (AEA) emerging as a key plank of the USN’s strategy, Boeing sees demand for the EA-18G growing, especially as the US Navy moves towards deploying the aircraft in networked cells. Designed to counter the advantage of advanced IADS with VHF radars capable of tracking LO aircraft, this tactic sees three airborne Growlers working together to passively geo-locate and identify hostile ground-based emitters, which are then countered and neutralised by other assets.

Gibbons explained: “The key is situational awareness (SA), so we’re going to upgrade the datalink from the Growler to other Growlers and even to the Super Hornet with a broadband TTNT datalink. That means as the Growlers are out there flying, when we network two or three of them together, it’s a huge multiplier, much more so than the number of airplanes alone would indicate. It gives an ability to understand what’s out there and locate targets from very long ranges. That is one of the most critical aspects we needed to do – to locate targets from safe distances. Once you know where targets are, you’ve got all sorts of ways to prosecute them. ” Gibbons’ assertion that the emergence of the electromagnetic spectrum as a warfighting domain on par with sea, land, air and space may surprise, given the role EW has played in air combat over the last 70 years. “If you look at it, historically, people were slow to even adapt to the fact that the air was a battlespace that needed to be dominated. It took a lot of visionaries and pioneers to conclude that the air was more important than putting balloons up and having a few observation posts up there, that you needed to dominate the air. So there’s always that lag between being able to do something and gaining advantage. And that’s where EW has migrated to. It used to be a domain that we could have effect in – now we’ve realised because our adversaries have moved so far forward in it as well. And it’s a domain we not only want to fight in, we want to dominate it. ” The US Navy’s ‘ownership’ of AEA reflects the philosophical divide between it and the USAF, which has enthusiastically embraced stealth as a means of avoiding detection and striking the target. The USN’s continued procurement of Growler – and possible acquisition of Advanced Super Hornet upgrades – points to a hedging strategy against future shortfalls in F-35 performance and affordability.

Gibbons points out: “The Growler provides the insurance and the capability for all strike fighters and future strike fighters like F-35 to be able to perform a mission safely. vAnd it is critical in a very dense environment that we expect to be out there in the future, that you have the greatest SA which you will get with the Growler and the ability to ‘sanitise’ the region ahead of strike fighters. It’s a great enhancement, it’s a complementary capability, but it is one that is deemed necessary by our joint commanders in the US, and likely in other countries as well. And I would imagine Australia being one of those. ” In the meantime, Australia’s future EA-18G airframes are soon to make slow but steady progress down the production line as 82WG aircrew continue to learn the dark art of electronic attack.

“Australia already has some operators co-located with the USN up at Whidbey Island, which is the centre of AEA expertise. And by all accounts they’re well integrated into the fabric of that EA community. We already are in the process of building the detailed parts for the RAAF’s Growlers and we will jig-load the first of those on the big assembly lines out at Northrop Grumman at El Segundo by the middle of this year.

“Then they’ll be sent by truck to St Louis, where they’ll come off the Boeing line by the middle of next calender year, 2015. ”

The showroom floor

And while no other export customers are on the horizon for the Growler, given its sensitivity, Gibbons remains confident that further customers for the Super Hornet are still in the offing.

“Prospects still look good. We’ve got the prospect for some of the countries that we’ve discussed in the past, that have been in the press in the past – specifically Denmark, we received their RFPs just last week, Canada is re-evaluating their options, and will make a decision, several countries in the Mid-East that are telling us that they intend to make fighter selections in the next year, and Malaysia has had discussions with us about their next gen fighter – some time in the future. So prospects internationally still look good, and longer-term, but it’s a matter of timing. A lot of those decisions are not immediate, so that’s the export side. We have very good orders right now from the USN, there are 21 Growlers that were added to the budget that was passed at the beginning of this year. The RAAF has ordered 12 additional Growlers that are added to that, and so we look at those orders plus the potential for more EA-18Gs from the USN based upon an emerging requirement. That would be a nice bridge to the international opportunities. ”