The US Navy is strongly interested in Super Hornet Block III, now ready for production after a five-year development phase. As is known, the US Navy should conclude the acquisition of the line Hornet in two years, with the last sixteen F-18, with funds equally divided in the fiscal year 2017 / 2018.
From the 2019, the Navy should reverse the funds for the new F-35C fleet. This process could be upset by the new one Super Hornet Block III. The reasons are many. Meanwhile, the US Navy has never been fully satisfied with the F-35C, preferring by far the experience, reliability and low unit and operational cost of the Hornet.
Then the US Navy is facing the future and its next-generation fighter, this time developed only for the US Navy, the F / A-XX, long-range platform that should fly between 15 / 20 years. In the middle, the program improvements Advanced Super Hornet, for a totally different semi-stealth hunt from the one that made its first flight in November of the 1978. It is a platform that presents measures to reduce the radar equivalent section, redesigned to extend autonomy with the new ones Conformal Fuel Tanks for a radius greater than 700 nautical miles and armed with theEnclosed Weapons Pod, low observability pod to carry weapons inside.
The reduction of the radar signature is estimated with the 50 per cent less than the current variant Super Hornet.
I Conformal Fuel Tanks they cancel the aerodynamic resistance of the detachable under-wing tanks, increasing the autonomy and further improving the low observability.
THEEnclosed Weapons Pod it was designed to carry, without invalidating the radar signature, six Small Diameter Bomb and two AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missiles or two guided bombs Paveway and two AMRAAM or an equivalent load of 1.179 kg.
Using rapid prototyping processes, Northrop Grumman completed the design and assembly of tanks in less than 10 months. Both the F / A-18 and its electronic attack variant, the EA-18G, will benefit from the Conformal Fuel Tanks adding 3,500 pounds of extra fuel.
The Block III also includes: improvements in the propulsion apparatus with the General Electric F414-440 that increase the thrust of the 20 per cent, the Spherical Missile Warning Capability, which gives full missile alert capacity, latest generation cockpit, Aesa radar and an IRST Il internal infrared search system Super Hornet Block III could perform most of the imagined missions for the F-35C, with the exception of penetrations stealth in enemy territory and the consequent release of weapon systems projects for stealth actions.
Considering the needs and operating theaters, the US Navy would need a long-range carrier and not a short-range tactical fighter.
Super Hornet and F / A-XX, however, require a sacrifice: the 260 F-35C provided for the US Navy. The US Navy, unlike the Marines and the Air Force, could in theory still make that choice, which the Pentagon will hardly authorize.
