Superhornet (f/a18e/f) & Growler (ea-18g) Thread

[FORBIN]

Come on baby

 

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[FORBIN]

EA-18G

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

Block III Super Hornet upgrades to begin this spring

• 22 DECEMBER, 2017
  
• SOURCE: FLIGHTGLOBAL.COM
  
• BY: LEIGH GIANGRECO
  
• WASHINGTON DC

The first US Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to receive service life modification upgrades will arrive at Boeing’s St. Louis facility next April and will leave with an additional 3,000 flight hours of service life, Boeing’s vice president of F/A-18 programmes tells FlightGlobal.

Unlike the legacy Hornet fleet, the Super Hornet modification will not entail one large replacement such as the centre barrel, says Dan Gillian. Instead, modifications will be distributed across the aircraft with a focus on corrosion, a perennial hurdle for the carrier-based aircraft.

After testing two F/A-18 “learning aircraft,” Boeing found corrosion was well maintained on Super Hornets that fly regularly but cropped up often on aircraft that had been grounded for a while. Boeing will not change materials on the aircraft but plans to use data analytics to predict how the navy should handle varied corrosion issues, Gillian says.

“We think the first 30-ish airplanes that we get our hands will help us dial in our data analytics predictive models to make those unknown things known,” he says. “There will be a lot of learning early in the program, which is one of the reasons the first of those airplanes is going to come to St Louis where we have the core of the engineering team.”

Once the service life modification (SLM) programme is stable, Boeing will add Block III capabilities onto the modified aircraft around 2022, he adds. That package will include conformal fuel tanks, Raytheon APG-63(V)3 radar, Block IV integrated defensive electronic countermeasures and a Block II integrated defensive electronic countermeasures system (IDECM).

Navy pilots will fly a stealthier F/A-18 after the modifications are complete, though the fighter will complement rather than compete with the Lockheed Martin F-35. Besides a fresh coating and painting, Gillian would not elaborate on engine inlet changes that could improve the F/A-18's stealth characteristics.

“Super Hornet is a pretty stealthy airplane today,” Gillian says. “This is low level improvements that are pretty simple to make, buying a little bit of margin, not trying to drastically change the airplane.”

Block III will be initially introduced through new aircraft off the line, followed by the Block II to III conversions, Gillian says. The president’s fiscal year 2018 budget funded 80 Super Hornets over the next five years, with 14 aircraft in FY2018 and 66 new Block III aircraft spread across FY2019 through FY2022.

The FY2018 budget also included about $265 million in research funding to support Block III capabilities including the conformal fuel tanks, advanced cockpit system, IRST21 (infrared search and track) and AESA radar upgrades. Boeing has been developing the advanced cockpit system for more than a year and plans to fly both the ACS and conformal fuel tanks with the navy in 2018, Gillian says. The Block III F/A-18 will also come equipped with Tactical Targeting Networking Technology (TTNT). The non-stealthy data-link is already a programme of record of the navy’s E2-D Hawkeye early warning aircraft and Boeing is now focusing on delivering the technology to the EA-18G Growler and Super Hornet, Gillian says.

Boeing has retooled the Block III concept to move away from a configuration that once included an enclosed weapons pod, now favoring a design that would allow the navy to hang a variety of weapons on the aircraft. But Gillian was also careful not to characterize the newest F/A-18 as a bomb truck.

“I think that’s old parlance for the super hornet’s mission,” he says. “I think both of the navy’s next [generation] fighters will play multiple role in air-to-air and air-to-ground but both are networked and survivable.”

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EA-18G !

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[FORBIN]

and here ya go, the reason the Chinese bought those SU-35s, when you need capability NOW, actually yesterday, and your 5 gen is NOT ready for "prime time"! actions have consequences, and those birds will be moving out to the boat as soon as they begin arriving! I do hope they are "Advance Hornets"!

China have 1/2 Su-35 Sqn USN have 30 F-18E/F Sqns in more 9 C/D USN/USMC so for the whole fleet balance of power no change
Sure F-35C is better than F-18E/F ghost with sensors and also range CR + 200 km as Advanced Hornets but F-18E/F despite less good in the short game with Sukhois is very decent with APG-79 and up to 12 AAMs in more completely versatile with LR CM don't have China and Russia in more next year AGM-158C 550 km range !

After finaly more long to have F-35C in big number 1st VFA in 2019 full and 2 by CAW in duo with F-18E/F surely for 2030 before planned about 2025, MQ-25 add power to CAW with
F-18E/F now free for combat missons but a MQ-25 refuel about only a fighter so necessary idealy 6 - 8 to refuel a little Sqn less with 5 max is less significative.

2019 Budget Presidential request 24 so + 10 F-18E/F and 9 F-35C the max planned/year is to 20 normaly
Last of hte 160 EA-18G delivered this year now about 140 - 150 Whidbey islands is full ! even during Cold war USN don't have 160 EA-6B IIRC about 120 but USAF have EF-111

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[Gloire_bb]

30 F-18E/F Sqns in more 9 C/D USN/USMC so for the whole fleet balance of power no change

How many of them are forward deployed to South China Sea, and how many sorties per plane per day can they generate?

With large missile stores it just isn't a practical fighter a2a set up, only cruise missile intercept or ambush.
Especially so for a super hornet.

 

[FORBIN]

How many of them are forward deployed to South China Sea, and how many sorties per plane per day can they generate?

With large missile stores it just isn't a practical fighter a2a set up, only cruise missile intercept or ambush.
Especially so for a super hornet.

Normaly a Nimitz can sustain 160 sorties a day, Ford 200, Nimtiz have do excercise in 1997 JTFEX 97-2 for surge high intensity operations 975 sorties in 4 day whose 770 for fighters !!!* aircrafts fly all the day/night without stop 80 % disponible others in maintenance
consumes 70% of A2G weapons and 45 % of fuel aviation possible max 6 days* vs 4 for a Kitty hawk nuclear propulsion advantage for power again more than for autonomy
a CVN have about + 30 - 40 % ammos/fuel
* According it max for Nimitz about 220 and i have see for Ford 280 sorties a day !
** But impossible for sailors personnal for cats by ex sleep max 4 hours !

how many sorties per plane per day can they generate?

For JTFEX 97-2 : F-18 in average 4,5 by 24 h, F-14 2,5, EA-6B 2,9
All here pic look vintage but 20 pages amazing !

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[TerraN_EmpirE]

Aircrew that landed a Growler while blind and freezing awarded for bravery


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  2 days ago

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blind after a catastrophic failure of the cockpit oxygen and

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has been officially recognized for exceptional airmanship.



The U.S. Navy’s top aviator, Vice Adm. DeWolfe Miller III, awarded Air Medals to Lt. Jason Hirzel and Lt. Sean Noronha, an award given for aircrew who “distinguish themselves by heroic or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight,” according to the instruction.



Miller’s spokesman said Hirzel and Noronha, both assigned to the elite Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Nine, went well beyond the call of duty to land the stricken Growler.



“This is a situation that absolutely would have justified ejection from the aircraft,” Flanders said. “But the aircrew persevered through the extreme conditions and risked their lives to ensure a safe recovery of the aircraft.”





Noronha and Hirzel were cruising at 25,000 feet on Jan. 29 — about 60 miles south of Seattle on a flight from Washington state’s Naval Air Station Whidbey Island to Naval Weapons Station China Lake — when the Growler’s environmental control system issued an icing warning, then failed completely.



The temperature in the cockpit plummeted to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit, and the system began filling the cabin with a mist that covered everything, including instruments, with a sheet of ice. Without so much as a window to see out of or instruments to guide them, the crew used a Garmin watch to track their heading and altitude while a tremendous effort from Whidbey Island’s ground control team guided the Growler safely back.



The maneuver was something close to driving fast through a busy part of town and parking the car while blindfolded, relying fully on a voice in your ear for each turn of the wheel.



Both pilots were rushed for medical treatment, having suffered from frostbite. One pilot has returned to flight status and the other is expected to make a full recovery and be up in the air again soon, Flanders said, but could not elaborate due to privacy protections.



The incident was a reminder of the Navy’s struggle with containing a recent rash of physiological episodes, many of which trace back to the environmental control system.



The service has made some progress in the physiological episodes fight, especially in the T-45 training jets. The rate of physiological episodes in the T-45 aircraft has dropped from about three a month at the peak in 2016 to about one a month since last September’s grounding.

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