the Navy’s carrier-launched F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III may still live to fly and fight years into the future.
the Navy’s carrier-launched F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III may still live to fly and fight years into the future.
By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior
(Washington DC) Having already outlived expectations and flown years beyond its planned service life, the Navy’s carrier-launched F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III may still live to fly and fight years into the future.
The famous fighter has in recent years received new cockpit displays, infrared targeting technology, conformal fuel tanks, weapons upgrades, external weapons pods and a special glide slope carrier landing software called “magic carpet,” among other things.
As is often the case with certain legacy platforms such as the B-52 or F-16, the F/A-18 airframes have remained viable for thousands of flight hours beyond the initial thought of 6,000 mission hours. Upgrades, sustainment efforts and Service Life Extension Plans, fortified by airframe structural maintenance to the center barrel section, modifications and reinforcements have enabled the aircraft to fly to 10,000 combat hours, decades beyond what had initially been planned.
Other upgrades to the aircraft include the addition of a Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System which provides a 20-degree field of view visor and a Digital Communication System Radio (MIDS) - Joint Tactical Radio System, Radio, MIDS - Joint Tactical Radio System, Digital Memory Device, Distributed Targeting System, Infrared Search and Track (IRST) and continued advancement of the APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array Radar, Navy weapons developers have said in recent years.
The added conformal fuel tanks make the fuselage slightly more “rounded” and less detectable to enemy radar and also massively extend dwell time for the aircraft, meaning it can loiter over enemy territory for longer periods of time to attack more targets on a single mission. This could be critical in areas such as the Pacific where the pure “tyranny of distance” and massive, extended geographical expanse makes it difficult to project and sustain air power from the sea. The IRST Infrared Search and Track technology is a next-generation targeting system built into the F/A-18 in recent years to improve targeting range and resolution while “hardening” sensor networks to remain resilient and functioning in a “jamming” EW kind of combat threat environment.
The continued life of the F/A-18 Super Hornet is not surprising for several key reasons, such as the incremental arrival of the carrier-launched F-35C and need to sustain pure “mass” in terms of air combat formations and the ability to project power. For instance, the US Navy recently conducted “dual-carrier” training operations in the Pacific, an exercise to demonstrate an ability to network and launch large numbers of aircraft from the sea to blanket an enemy area with air attack, multiply attack options and expand formations to “overwhelm” an enemy with air power. Advanced networking technologies and F/A-18 sustainment efforts have made this possible. While certainly the stealthy F-35C is now operational and continuing to arrive, there are simply not yet enough of them in operation to mass a large Carrier Air Wing attack across a wide expanse. This is where the F/A-18 comes in, as stealthier 5th-generation aircraft, and perhaps even bombers, can destroy enemy air defenses to create an “air corridor” for less stealthy 4th-generation planes to fly in for attack.
Any engagement against a great rival power such as China in the Pacific would likely require the US to deploy a large force of carrier launched aircraft to cover wide areas of attack, intercept Chinese efforts to encircle Taiwan from the air and sustain air bombardment continuously to overwhelm and destroy an enemy. This is likely why the US Navy is doubtless grateful that it has in recent years been requesting more F/A-18s while upgrading and improving the existing fleet. Also, unless the US Navy plans to field massive numbers of F-35C carrier-launched stealth aircraft in the future, the F/A-18 Super Hornet will not likely be going anywhere soon.
However, at the same time multiple reports do say Boeing may soon stop production of its F/A-18, suggesting that even the well-extended Super Hornet may eventually sunset as 5th and 6th generation carrier launched airframes continue to arrive.
F/A-18 Upgrades
It would be an understatement to refer to the US Navy’s F-18s far reaching modernization campaign and service life extension as wide-spanning, because the multi-year effort has been extremely intense and impactful as well.
In a clear, overall sense, the 1980s-era aircraft has remained viable, competent and extremely effective in a range of varied and highly dangerous combat environments for decades beyond its intended service life. The range of upgrades have, over the years, included key areas such as the aircraft’s cockpit, airframe, helmet cueing, targeting, weapons, software, external configuration, navigational guidance, sensing, EW and weaponry.
The F-18 Hornet first flew as far back as 1978 with an initial expectation of flying 6,000 flight hours. However, the aircraft’s improvement and combat success, combined with the continued durability of its airframe, inspired the Navy to launch several Service Life Extension Programs (SLEP) to extend the combat life of the aircraft.
Service Life Extension Program
Years ago, the platform's service life was extended to 8,000 flight hours and beyond 10,000 flight hours. In fact, upgraded F/A-18 Super Hornets have been destroying Houthi targets and intercepting drones and missiles in the Red Sea now more than 40-years after its emergence.
The airframes have remained viable for decades, yet the SLEP program has reinforced and supported the structure of the airframes to surge into the future, and today’s F/A-18 is almost an entirely different aircraft than what was first experienced years ago. The aircraft faced the fundamental problem that it could quickly become obsolete as enemy air defenses and fighter jets further advanced and some.
Roughly 10-years ago, the US Navy was operating with what it said was a significant F/A-18 deficit and had placed large numbers of the aircraft on the service’s unfunded priorities list. Around this general timeframe, the US Navy took several massive steps forward to improve the aircraft and insure it could respond properly to threats in a modern combat environment. This was particularly critical as the US Navy was waiting for the delayed arrival of the carrier-launched F-35C 5th-gen aircraft to arrive.
Massive Upgrades
One of several experimental upgrades included the addition of what the service called “Conformal” fuel tanks, two semi-circular external tank structures were lodged on either side of the fuselage to greatly expand the range and “dwell time” of the aircraft. The extra fuel did greatly extend the useful range of the aircraft and was supported by continued upgrades to sensors and weaponry to enable additional mission capabilities for the aircraft.
Targeting, Sensing & EW
Sensor upgrades included the addition of what’s called Infra=Red Search and Track (IRST) advanced targeting technologies. IRST improved the range and fidelity of F/A-18 targeting sensors and further hardened them for advanced threats such as EW. The cockpit was completely redone with new digital systems and avionics and Navy engineers at one point experimented with external weapons pods designed to lower the radar signature of the aircraft and enhance its stealth properties. One interesting aspect of this is that F/A-18s wound up helping greatly with targeting and threat identification in several conflicts, alongside operating as an attack platform. In fact, during the engagement against ISIS and even in Operation Iraqi Freedom to a certain extent, F/A-18s were used extensively for targeting and surveillance just as much as for attack, as the aircraft could patrol enemy areas to use high-resolution sensors to identify targets for later attack.
Weapons Pod
A smoothed over weapons pod would of course decrease the radar signature of the F/A-18 by covering up all of the jagged edges on weapons systems hanging on external hard points likely to generate a clearer radar return signal to enemy air defenses. The more sharp contours and protruding structures there are on an aircraft, the more likely it is to be detected by enemy ground radar. Clearly defined shapes and angled structures enable electromagnetic “pings” from radar to bounce off of quite easily to capture a more precise picture for ground-based air defenses.
Lastly, the Navy also upgraded the software on the F-18 with a special technology called “magic carpet” designed to help pilots land on a carrier deck with a smoother “glide slope.” Kris Osborn is the Military Affairs Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.