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Boeing set to begin Block III upgrades on the Navy’s fleet of Super Hornets

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There is no debate that America’s fifth generation fighters, the F-22 and F-35, tend to garner the most publicity, but in terms of operational aircraft, all of the functional Raptors and Joint Strike Fighters employed by the entire U.S. military wouldn’t even add up to a sizeable chunk of the number of F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets in use by the Navy and Marine Corps, but that’s not the aircraft’s only claim to fame when compared to its more advanced successors. According to Boeing, the F/A-18 is also “the most cost-effective aircraft in the U.S. tactical aviation fleet, costing less per flight hour than any other tactical aircraft in U.S. forces inventory.”

It’s little surprise, then, than the Department of Defense has just awarded Boeing $73 million to begin work upgrading the Block II Super Hornets to a new Block III configuration as early as next month, aiming to keep the F/A-18 flying combat operations for at least another decade.

“The initial focus of this program will extend the life of the fleet from 6,000 to 9,000 flight hours,” said Mark Sears, SLM program director.

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Comments

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  • Roger Hicks

    So now we have a Dungeon & Dragons group where the F-35’s the thief, sneaking up behind the bad guys to deliver a devastating sneak attack, while the F-18’s the fighter whaling away on the front line. (In this nerdy analogy, the E-2D would be the wizard and the aircraft carrier itself the cleric, where the others go to repair/heal).

  • Grey Ghost

    Supercharged F-18s sound like a good idea!

  • Alan t

    Do they come with new watches?

  • Jarred T

    Thanks for the update Alex. Lots of interesting info in there.