F/A18-E/F Super Hornet .... Leading Naval Aviation into the 21st Century

The F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet is a winner... it's affordable... and it's flying today, exceeding every operational goal. F/A-18 E/F will outperform any top-line fighter aircraft of today and tomorrow.

Unlike any other nation's fighters, our approach to aircraft survivability — the key measure of an aircraft's effectiveness — involves a balanced, systematic strategy. In designing Super Hornet, low observable technology was blended with state-of-the-art defensive electronic countermeasures, reduced areas of vulnerability, and high precision technology air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons.

As a superb multi-mission aircraft ... a fighter and a bomber ... the Navy's Super Hornet spans the tactical mission spectrum from long range, sea-based air dominance to "through the weather" deep strike interdiction. By every war fighting measure, the Navy's Super Hornet will greatly exceed the capabilities of both the aircraft it is designed to replace ... as well as the aircraft it may meet on tomorrow's battlefields.

The F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet was designed with 17 cubic feet of "growth space" for electronic systems — avionics and associated wiring. This means that when newer technology is available, it can be added to continually update Super Hornet's warfighting capability and survivability.

The Navy's Super Hornet gives this nation both a "first day of the war" and an "every day of the war" dominance, and a precision strike fighter that meets and beats the threat through the first part of the 21st century. Super Hornet can carry every tactical air-to-air and air-to-ground weapon in the Navy's inventory. With the AMRAAM missile, enhanced radar, and advanced onboard sensor fusion capability, there is not a threat fighter in the world today — or projected to exist in the next 20 years — that Super Hornet cannot decisively defeat and totally dominate in combat.

The Navy conducted a detailed analysis to determine the overall combat effectiveness of this aircraft. A significant part of the methodology we used was a poll of experts within the intelligence community. We asked a number of these experts their opinion of aircraft capabilities in six important areas of merit. These experts included aviators, aeronautical engineers, and intelligence specialists. Areas of merit studied included maneuverability, range, radar signature, radar guided weapons, infared weapons, and avionics suite.

To see this analysis for yourself, select the first two hyperlinks below. See how Super Hornet can fight and win against any potential enemy ... both today and tomorrow. See what are the components of combat effectiveness and mission success.

• Components of mission success – use the "Back" button to return to this page.
• More information about the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet
• Super Hornet ordnance load
• DoD approves initial Super Hornet production
• Excerpt on F/A-18E/F from a speech by the Chief of Naval Operations to the Sea-Air-Space Symposium , Washington, D.C., 26 March 1997
• Super Hornet begins carrier qualifications aboard USS John C. Stennis
• Super Hornet carrier quals are super successful!

 

Images of the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet

• Another Super Hornet milestone — Navy test pilot Lieut. Tom Hole fires an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile from the Super Hornet F/A-18F(2).
• CNO flies Super Hornet — Adm. Johnson and Cmdr. Tom Gurney, in the far Super Hornet, fly over Chesapeake Bay near the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., March 28. In the foreground is an F/A-18D Hornet.
• The future meets the future — U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen see the Navy's newest carrier based aircraft.
• Another successful milestone. The F/A-18E Super Hornet successfully completes first in-flight tests with ordnance.
• CNO checks out Super Hornet at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.
• In the groove.The F/A-18F Super Hornet, makes a final approach to the flight deck of USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) during the aircraft's initial sea trials.