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REPRINTED FROM FEBRUARY 2015 ISSUE OF
NORTH AMERICA’S BEST-SELLING MILITARY AVIATION MAGAZINE
INDUSTRY REPORT
BOEING MILITARY AIRCRAFT
BOEING MILITARY AIRCRAFT
ADVANCED SUPER HORNET
Above left to right: Maintenance personnel conduct final pre-launch checks in preparation for the first test flight of an F/A-18F equipped with
the new Infra-Red Search and Track (IRST) pod. US Navy • The new 11 x 19in multi-function display of the proposed Advanced cockpit. Boeing •
A diagram showing the various weapons options available with the Enclosed Weapons Pod (EWP). Boeing
Left: ‘Magic Carpet’ is a new software
package aimed at helping Super Hornet
and Growler pilots get aboard carrier
decks by automatically flying a set rate
of descent based on pilot inputs. Pilots
would have to spend less training time
becoming proficient through field carrier
landing practice. Jamie Hunter
This photo: With at least two Super Hornet
squadrons in each carrier air wing, two air
wings featuring three squadrons and two
with four, the F/A-18E/F’s pre-eminent
position can be imagined.
US Navy/MCSS Everett Allen
report: Brad Elward
T
HE BOEING F/A-18E/F Super
Hornet and EA-18G Growler
are the mainstays of US Navy
tactical carrier aviation and are
poised to play a significant role
into the 2040s. Even with the
planned arrival of the F-35C Lightning II in
2019, the Super Hornet and Growler will still
constitute over half of the carrier air wing for
many years to come.
The US Navy’s program of record for the
Super Hornet stands at 563 F/A-18E/Fs plus
138 Growlers. Dan Gillian, Boeing’s F/A‑18
Vice-President, explained: ‘Our current
contracts take production at three per month
through to the end of 2016, and that includes
the program of record plus the 12 Growlers
for Australia. The Multi-Year Production
(MYP) III and [Fiscal Year] 2014 contracts
run through to the end of 2016 at the rate
of three per month. [W]e are in discussion
with the government based on Congressional
recommendations for an additional 12
Growlers. These aircraft, along with the
production line slow-down we agreed upon
with the Navy, will take production through
to the end of 2017’. He added: ‘We are in the
process of working through potential sales for
FY16.’
Strong support
Because the Super Hornet dominates the
US Navy’s tactical air fleet, the ‘flight plan’
of future capabilities is impressive. CAPT
Frank Morley, US Navy F/A-18 and EA-18G
Program Manager, told Combat Aircraft that
the Super Hornet is ‘the predominant aircraft
now’, adding that ‘it will be for some time as
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the F-35C comes online and begins to replace
the F/A-18A to D squadrons’. According to
Morley, the Navy ‘has certainly recognized
this over the past couple of years, and as a
result there are pretty robust capability and
investment plans to keep advancing the Super
Hornet’. Not until its replacement arrives
under the future F/A-XX program will the
Super Hornet relinquish its leading position.
The main lines of action are designated
Integrated Capabilities Packages (ICP). ICP 2
is counter-air, and ICP 3 is maritime ASuW
(anti-surface warfare). Morley said: ‘The ICP
approach is Navy, not [limited to the] Super
Hornet or Growler’. ICPs are based on a
number of studies looking at ‘what we need to
do across the find, fix, track, target, engage kill
chain.’
Central to ICP 2 is the Infra-Red Search and
Track (IRST) capability, which has been in
development for several years as an external
pod. Boeing’s centerline-mounted pod features
an infra-red sensor, built by Lockheed Martin,
placed in the nose section of a standard
480-gallon fuel tank. The IRST can passively
locate and target an enemy aircraft without
triggering the enemy’s radar warning receivers.
Morley commented: ‘Counter-EA lets
us work in the electro-magnetic spectrum
with the radar and the increasingly active
environment, and IRST gets us out of band
into the passive bands in order to continue to
work the air-to-air fight out. You need to do
both; there is no one arrow in the quiver that
assures us success, so you try to develop along
parallel lines.’
The Super Hornet IRST reached a Milestone
C decision on December 2, 2014 and will
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achieve initial operational capability (IOC)
in 2017 for implementation in two blocks.
Block I will be the initial basic IRST capability
with a passive sensor. Block 2, Gillian said,
comes ‘through IR receiver and software
enhancements.’ The IRST brings a ‘great
capability for the platform and something
that [the] Navy is looking forward to,’ Gillian
added.
Morley went on: ‘We will integrate that effort
with the multi-sensor integration, where we
can fuse all of the various complex inputs we
have, whether on-board/off-board sensors,
or off-band sensors, through links. It is really
the need to take pieces of information from
different areas to tie into a total picture and
develop a target. [We] have the MIDS-JTRS
[Multi-functional Information Distribution
System Joint Tactical Radio System] upgrade
for the fleet — that is progressing — and we
also added Concurrent Multi-Netting 4, where
we add capabilities and more capacity to Link
16 to enhance targeting.’
The next evolution is ICP 3, which is now
in testing. ‘We have an active and passive side
to this part’, Morley explained. ‘The passive
side comes out of the Growler, mainly, and
those are things we got in the last budget
cycle, such as Tactical Targeting Network
Technology (TTNT), the advanced link, and
timed direction of arrival algorithms, to help
with long-range targeting in an EW passive
side. As we go into this year, we pick up the
active side which comes more from the Super
Hornet side, and applies to [the] Growler too,
because it comes largely through the AESA
[active electronically scanned array] radar
— air-to-target recognition, algorithms, EW
surveillance to support the ASuW kill chain
in an active sense. That starts in this budget
cycle.’
Morley noted that several weapons are
included. ‘With software H8, we integrated
AARGM [the AGM-88E
Advanced Anti-Radiation
Guided Missile], AIM-9X Block
II and AIM-120D, and H10 will
see the [Joint Stand-Off Weapon]
(JSOW)-C1 integrated. Then longterm we are talking LRASM [LongRange Anti-Ship Missile] and Small
Diameter Bomb (SDB) II’. The Super
Hornet is also now certified to carry
Mk62 and Mk63 Quickstrike mines.
New mission computers are also funded.
According to Gillian, ‘We are delivering
aircraft with the Type III Mission Computer,
and we have plans [...] to transition to the
ACMC (Advanced Capability Mission
Computer). This is particularly important
to [the] Growler but also important to [the]
Super Hornet’. The Type III has been part of
the baseline Block II configuration since Lot
30, and Gillian said the ACMC will likely be
brought into the production line in Lot 39.
ACMC is several generations advanced from
Type III and offers about a 50 per cent capacity
upgrade.
Moreover, the Integrated Defense Electronic
Countermeasures (IDECM) program is now
in Block IV. According to Gillian: ‘EW selfprotection suite, visual on-board self-protect
jammer, is a system that is coming into Super
Hornet now, and we have been doing testing
at China Lake. IOC is planned for the E/F next
year and is also compatible for the ‘legacy’
Hornet, with IOC in 2016.’
Advanced Super Hornet
During the summer of 2013, Boeing
flew a prototype of an Advanced Super
Hornet with conformal fuel tanks (CFTs)
and an enclosed weapons pod plus other
radar signature reduction enhancements.
Additional Advanced Super Hornet
options include increased-thrust engines,
an advanced crew station, and an internal
IRST. Boeing does not expect the US Navy
to buy the Advanced Super Hornet as a
package, but, Gillian says, ‘a lot of what we
demonstrated last summer [2013] continues
to get traction and I think you will see those
continue to come forward in the future. CFTs
probably have the most traction right now,
and they are important for the Super Hornet
from a striking capability and are even more
important for the Growler for
mission duration. [The] Growler
is a little heavier when it comes
back to the boat because of
the jamming gear, and so
that extra fuel around
the boat is important’.
Morley echoed these
remarks, noting that
‘CFTs are probably of
the most interest and have applicability for
both [the] Super Hornet and Growler.’
More bite for the Growler
With the US Navy’s last fleet EA-6B Prowler
squadron now transitioning to the EA-18G
Growler, the electronic attack effort of the
Navy is well and truly behind the Boeing
platform. Electronic Attack Squadron 131
(VAQ-131) ‘Lancers’ will conclude its
conversion in February, while VAQ-142
‘Gray Wolves’ began the process last October.
VAQ-134 ‘Garudas’, the final US Navy Prowler
squadron, recently ended its final deployment
and will start transitioning during mid-2015.
CAPT Darryl Walker, Commodore,
Electronic Attack Wing, Pacific, told CA:
‘There are 14 squadrons, including the
FRS [Fleet Replacement Squadron]. Nine
live here (at Whidbey Island, Washington)
permanently and VAQ-141 ‘Shadowhawks’
is the forward-deployed squadron. We
also have three expeditionary squadrons:
VAQ‑132 ‘Scorpions’, VAQ-135 ‘Black Ravens’
and VAQ-138 ‘Yellow Jackets’ — and the
program of record calls for two additional
expeditionary squadrons. VAQ-134 will join
those when it transitions’. VAQ-143 will begin
to build around FY17, according to Walker.
In August 2013 it was reported that VAQ-144
would also be established as an expeditionary
squadron, but those plans are temporarily on
hold.
The Advanced Growler is seen as a natural
evolution of the EA-18G and is not yet a set
configuration. It includes conformal fuel
tanks, upgrades to the AN/AGP-79 radar, an
advanced crew station with the large-area
11 x 19in displays, enhanced engines,
AN/ALQ-218 tactical jammer upgrades, and
the Next-Generation Jammer. The latter is
slated for IOC in 2021, and will be fielded
in three phases. All of these options can be
retro-fitted to existing Growlers and would
ensure that the platform retains its dominance
beyond 2030.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to CAPT Francis
D. Morley; CAPT Darryl Walker; CDR Jeannie
Growneveld; Dan Gillian, Mark Gammon, Lisa
Maull, Boeing; Paula A. Paige, NAWCD Public
Affairs; and Rob Koon, PMA-265, PAO.
The Royal Australian Air Force
is the only export customer
for the Super Hornet, having
received 24 aircraft. It now
plans to procure 12 EA-18G
Growlers. RAAF Super Hornets
are currently engaged in
combat operations over
Iraq under Operation ‘Okra’
alongside their US Navy
counterparts. Commonwealth
of Australia/Sgt Andrew Eddie
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