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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 52 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 February February2015 2015 www.combataircraft.net Boeing Military Aircraft Boeing www.combataircraft.net Military Aircraft February February2015 2015 53 BOEING MILITARY AIRCRAFT 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 54 February February2015 2015 www.combataircraft.net Boeing Military Aircraft