ST. LOUIS—Boeing has cautioned the U.S. Navy against getting locked into another 20-year aircraft development program as it reaches for F/A-XX, the service’s next carrier warplane.
The company says continuing to evolve the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet through “Block 3” beginning in fiscal 2019 and a potential “Block 4” follow-on modernization program as a complement to the Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II is the most prudent path forward to satisfy an immediate need for greater numbers of strike fighters with advanced capabilities.
Boeing says low radar cross-section airframes are useful for the first day of war and flying into denied areas guarded by X-band radars. But the integrated air defense radars of potential adversaries such as Russia and China have moved into different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as C-band and S-band. Buying into a next-generation stealth aircraft development program under F/A-XX might not be the best answer to meeting current and future threats, Boeing believes.
Boeing says new capabilities delivered in Super Hornet Block 3 will help it survive in high-threat regions. Those include new electronic support measures and jammers, as well as longer-range, higher-power radars and infrared detection.
“For the Navy, and I think for a lot of countries, don’t lock yourself into a 20-year development cycle and a platform you’re stuck with for X amount of years,” says Larry Burt, a former naval aviator and now Boeing’s director of global sales and marketing for global strike programs. “Don’t make a big revolutionary step. Keep evolving what you’ve got. You could keep evolving the mission systems, sensors and capability of the Super Hornet and maybe eventually put a new wrapper on it.”
Burt says low-observable aircraft like the F-22 and F-35 are extremely difficult to upgrade and install new capabilities without breaking the outer mold line, whereas traditional wing body designs like the F/A-18 and F-15 are relatively easy and cost-effective to upgrade. Aircraft survivability can be achieved through other means, Boeing says, pointing to the Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures (Idecm) Block IV system for the Super Hornet and Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System (Epawss) upgrade for the F-15.
Meanwhile, the energy output and computer processing power of modern active electronically scanned array radars, including the Super Hornet’s Raytheon APG-79 and F-15’s APG-63(V)3 and APG-82(V)1, are increasing the range at which low-observable threats can be detected and intercepted with air-to-air weapons. Those new types of fire control radars also are being fielded on fourth-generation aircraft by potential adversaries.
The long-range infrared search and track sensor being rolled out to the Super Hornet and being selected for the F-15 are also helping uncloak stealthy warplanes.
Boeing has previously tried to work radar deflecting shapes into its Advanced Super Hornet design. But its latest Block 3 proposal developed for the Navy and potential international customers focused more on electronic warfare and sensors for survival, as well as heat and electrical signature miniaturization.
“The Block 3 is low-observable [LO], but we think there’s a balance between how LO you need to be and other aspects of survivability,” Burt says. “Stealth is part of being survivable. But today’s stealth, the stealth you see in fifth-generation aircraft and in the current F/A-18, is focused on a certain frequency range where a lot of the threats reside. The threat knows that and is moving out of that [frequency range].”
Unlike Northrop Grumman with the B-2, B-21 and RQ-180 and Lockheed Martin with the F-117, F-35, F-22 and RQ-170, Boeing has not developed a fully operational, low radar cross-section aircraft, except as the mission system supplier for the F-22 Raptor.
Boeing’s comments on LO aircraft come as it tries to sell the Navy on another 120 Block 3 Super Hornets. The Pentagon is in the midst of a cost and capability analysis between the F/A-18 and F-35, ordered by the White House, that will inform future budgets and force structure decisions. The Navy’s carrier-based F-35C replaces legacy F/A-18C/D aircraft, not the Super Hornet. But the two aircraft still battle for annual budget appropriations.
“It’s not about one or the other,” Burt says. “Everything we’ve heard is that the Navy sees the Super Hornet and F-35 as essential.”
Boeing is building Super Hornets at a rate of two aircraft per month at its manufacturing plant here and says near-term opportunities, if realized, will keep production humming into the 2020s. Boeing says the F/A-18 will be the “predominant aircraft” on Navy carrier decks through 2040, and their structural service life is being extended from 6,000 hr. to 9,000 hr. for in-service and new aircraft.
The Navy’s program of record is for more than 560 Super Hornet and 160 EA-18G Growler electronic attack derivatives. The service intends to buy 260 F-35C, but the ramp-up in delivery has been slower than originally expected due to development delays and cost overruns. The F-35 Block 3F will complete development in 2018 and shift into a Block 4 follow-on modernization shortly thereafter.
Potential foreign military sales prospects for the Super Hornet include Kuwait, Canada, India and Finland. Kuwait is close to signing a deal for 24 aircraft with an option for 12 more. Canada is negotiating with Boeing via the U.S. government for an interim fleet of F/A-18E/Fs to meet its defense obligations to North American Aerospace Defense Command and NATO.
India, meanwhile, needs a new aircraft for its carriers. Boeing is working to validate the Super Hornet’s ski jump capability to ensure it can meet India’s needs, since U.S. jets are typically launched by catapult.
The company also has responded to a request for information from Finland about an F/A-18C/D replacement. It faces stiff competition there from Saab’s Gripen E and other Western fighters.
Notably, Canada and Kuwait have not requested certain modifications that would allow their Super Hornets to be upgraded to the Growler configuration later, as Australia did with its fleet.
Canada and Kuwait also have requested integration with the Lockheed Martin Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod, Boeing says.
The U.S. Navy is interested in most of Boeing’s proposed capability upgrades for Block 3, but Boeing confirms it has no plans to install the General Electric F414 “Enhanced Engine,” which provides 18% greater power compared to today’s model. “It’s an upgrade we’d encourage the Navy to do,” Burt says.