The U.S. Navy is hastily replacing its old Boeing F/A-18C Hornet multirole fighters with the latest single-seat F/A-18E and two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornets aboard all its Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.
The acquisition of more of these multi-mission Super Hornets for Navy fighter and attack squadrons is meant to erase a shortfall of this combat proven air superiority and strike fighter aboard navy carriers. Navy sources said the navy plans to buy dozens of the F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornets.
An unmanned navy official quoted by military media said the navy was divesting its legacy Hornets to reduce the strike fighter shortfall and to best prepare future air wings for likely threats. The navy plans "to buy several squadrons worth of Super Hornets and continue with efforts to bring on the F-35 carrier variant."
The navy also plans to acquire and deploy a new unmanned carrier-based refueling plane. This will probably be an unmanned aerial vehicle.
Knowledgeable sources said the navy took this exceptional step because of delays in deploying the F-35C, the carrier-based variant of the Joint Strike Fighter. This reason and others confronts the navy with a shortage of 70 fighter jets over the next few years.
The F/A-18C Hornets will likely be transferred to the Marine Corps, which still uses this version of the fourth generation fighter.
The design of the Super Hornet includes melds low observable technology with state-of-the-art defensive electronic countermeasures, reduced areas of vulnerability and high precision air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles and smart bombs.
The Super Hornet carries 33 percent more internal fuel, increasing mission range by 41 percent and endurance by 50 percent over the legacy Hornet.
It has an internal 20 mm M61 rotary cannon and can carry a mix of air-to-air missiles, air-to-surface weapons, anti-ship missiles and smart bombs such as the Paveway series on 11 hardpoints.