On May 8, Boeing announced that it had delivered the first two F/A-18E/F Block III Carrier-based Aircraft to the U.S. Naval Aviation Corps at its final assembly plant in St. Louis, Missouri. At the end of last month, Boeing had just completed the production of the 608th F/A-18E/F Block II fighter jet and officially announced the official closure of the Block II Super Hornet production line. From Block II to III, almost seamlessly, the "post-Super Hornet" era has come.
The "Silent Hornet" carrier-based aircraft that just left the factory
Why did the U.S. Navy invert the F/A-18 again?
Hearing this news, many readers may find it strange that the US Navy carrier-based aircraft forces have not long ago decided to use the F-35C as a new generation of "standard fighter" and unify the decks of the next generation of aircraft carriers? How did this come back to the "Super Hornet"?
F-18F Block III "Silent Hornet"
Equipment and technical factors
In fact, we can't say the same thing, after all, according to the US military's "Fleet Vision 2025", at least until 2025 or so, a standard US Navy carrier aircraft wing (CVW) should also be composed of 2 squadrons equipped with F-35C (10 aircraft each) and 2 squadrons equipped with F/A-18E/F "Super Hornet" fighter attack aircraft (12 aircraft each) to form the main combat force, and the third generation and half fighters and the fourth generation aircraft are half. According to the feasibility study report of the "2040 configuration" of the US carrier-based aircraft wing released by the US Strategic and Budget Evaluation Center (CSBA) at the end of 2018, at that time, the US Navy intends to gradually replace the F/A-18E/F, but what model to use to implement the replacement is not stated, only a very vague "F/A-XX", which may be changed on the basis of the "Super Hornet".
Therefore, basically from now until 2040, the three-and-a-half generation fighters represented by the "Super Hornet" still have a certain vitality in its carrier-based aircraft wing, and since a type of equipment will serve for at least 20 years, it is natural to carry out continuous improvement and even deep diving.
Political factors
In addition to equipment and technical factors, we must not forget the extremely close relationship between Boeing and the Trump administration, after all, from the perspective of research and development path, the F/A-18E/F Block III was not even a project established by the US military at the beginning, but a verification project called "Hornet International" made by Boeing in 2010 "self-financing" (familiar taste), and the research and development goal was to bid for the "advanced medium-sized multi-purpose fighter" that the Indian Air Force was in full swing at that time.
Indian Exclusive Edition "International Bumblebee"
Although the bidding was fruitless later, but the Trump presidency lost no time in inserting a lever, everyone remembers that Trump just came to power in 2017 announced that "F-35 is too expensive, I want to buy cheap aircraft", repeatedly stated that he wanted to engage in "Boeing big orders", and now finally gave this batch of "big orders" to the real hammer, ready to purchase 84 new F/A-18E/F Block3 from now to fiscal year 2024, and also prepared to make progress of about 12 aircraft per year. The more than 500 Block2s in active service have also been upgraded to the technical level of Block III.
No one knows a better job of carrier-based fighter jets than I do
Although on the one hand, this batch of "super old hornets" that have been used for one or two decades has also reached the year of the MLU (mid-term upgrade), on the other hand, as a normal technical upgrade, there is no problem from the Block II iteration to III, but Trump's so blatant, or quite suspicious of the US military to buy this batch of "silent hornets", whether it is for the demand to buy equipment, but also for the equipment invention needs.
3-point upgrade for The Silent Hornet
After all, from the current F/A-18E/F Block III "Silent Hornet" overall technical and tactical performance, although it was blown by Boeing very strongly, in Boeing's mouth, "Super Hornet" after such a modification, I am afraid that it will be called "Super Duper Hornet", but as long as we take out its performance analysis and analysis, or feel that this aircraft is only on the basis of the existing model to make a limited supplement, Otherwise, Boeing would not have announced that it could upgrade the existing "Super Hornet" to "Silent Hornet" through modular upgrades. According to the information that has been disclosed so far, the improvement measures prepared for the Block III type are mainly as follows:
Upgrade data for Block III
Add "conformal fuel tank"
The first is the addition of a conformal fuel tank (CFT) above the fuselage strip and on both sides of the fuselage back, an improvement that was already determined when Boeing flipped the "Hornet International" project. According to Boeing, this pair of large CFTs can add 3500 pounds of additional fuel to the Silent Hornet, which is equivalent to about 1588 kilograms, which is equivalent to the "Super Hornet" mounting a 480 gallat belly midline auxiliary tank. Although the Silent Hornet was given a 700 kg empty weight, Boeing claimed that the CFT could better improve the rise-to-drag ratio characteristics of the Hornet and greatly increase the combat radius of the Silent Hornet.
F-18F Block III型
According to data provided by Boeing, the Silent Hornet has a typical combat radius of up to 1500 km in the high-low-high combat profile when it is mounted with two JSOW attack munitions outside the joint defense zone, a midline auxiliary fuel tank, and two AIM-9X fighting shells, and if the CFT module is removed, the combat radius will be reduced by 300 kilometers. In other missions and mount configurations, the CFT is said to be able to effectively increase the usable combat radius of the Silent Hornet, ranging from two hundred to four hundred kilometers compared to the mounted auxiliary fuel tank.
Retrofitting of the "enclosed weapon pod"
Of course, the addition of the conformal fuel tank is not in vain, after the large auxiliary fuel tank originally used for the midline pylon of the belly is "changed to the back", it means that the "Silent Hornet" can free up the belly and the three heavy-duty pylons on the wings, carrying a specially designed EWP, which is the so-called "closed weapon pod", which is probably the first time that the new weapon pod has been used on the third generation of semi-modified fighters. Compared with traditional external weapons, EWP is said to effectively reduce the radar reflective surface of aircraft and improve low detectability.
According to Boeing's design, the weapons pods prepared for the Silent Hornet seem to have only one specification at present, with three heavy-duty pylons in common, and each capsule can carry 4 AIM-120D medium-range radar-guided air-to-air missiles, or 2 AIM-120D plus 2 500lb-class small and medium-sized JDAM ammunition. Without the AIM-120D, the pod can carry only 1 1000lb or 2000lb class of heavy ammunition, and it is unclear exactly what the reasons for this large pod, similar in size to the auxiliary fuel tank, are intended for use in what tactical scenarios.
Pod of the F-18F Block III
Ivan the Great personally believes that the use of such pods under the air configuration is similar to "air combat with auxiliary fuel tanks" in air combat, which has different degrees of negative impact on the maneuverability of fighters in over-the-horizon occupation and close-range combat, and under the opposing attack configuration with relatively weak requirements for fighter mobility, the use of low detectability weapon pods still has some advantages.
Replace the "Avionics System"
In addition to "adding CFTs" and "reloading EWP", the third major upgrade implemented by the Silent Hornet is the usual routine operation of the upgrade of the third-generation and half-generation fighter: the replacement of the avionics system. Compared to the Super Hornet, the Silent Hornet has implemented at least three upgrades to its avionics system:
One is to add the IRST-21 forward-looking infrared detection system produced by Lockheed Martin to increase its situational awareness capability, which is standard in the current three-and-a-half-generation fighter improvements, but it is not clear how the US military intends to achieve this configuration. Previously, it was reported that the US military intended to learn the F-35C and install an IRST detection window in the "jaw" of the "Silent Hornet", but according to the two prototypes delivered, the US military finally seemed to choose the most conservative plan, integrating THE IRST into the midline auxiliary fuel tank, installing an AN/ASG-34 detector in the front, and then adding fuel to the rear of the probe, which is a very confusing design;
IRST Infrared Detection System
The second is to increase its tactical data link, electromagnetic support performance, "Silent Hornet" has made a wide range of updates to its airborne electronic system, so that it can be compatible with the U.S. Navy's current common, especially can operate jointly with the F-35C Naval integrated fire control system, the currently identified upgrade measures include the update of low-detectability high-bandwidth data links ("Tactical Target Network", TTNT), improved satellite communication system (SATCOM), "Distributed Target Processor Network" (DTP-N), The new generation of electronic countermeasures and electromagnetic support systems, etc., it is said that the upgraded "Silent Hornet" can completely carry out high-intensity combat without the support of the "Growler", but the specific effect will continue to be observed;
The cockpit of the "Silent Hornet"
After all, the avionics and fire control systems have been upgraded over and over again, and the cockpit has to be changed, and the "Silent Hornet" uses a touch-type large-size tactical display (LAD) that is even more advanced than the F-35C, which can not only freely choose the tactical information and display mode, but also can even implement a panoramic display of the entire battlefield situation in the form of three-dimensional images, similar to the "God perspective" in the game. However, although there are many upgrades to the avionics system, the Silent Hornets have mysteriously not upgraded the AN/APG-79 radar, which is a bit confusing.
APG-79 radar
Is the Silent Bumblebee powerful?
All in all, for the "silent bumblebee" that Boeing has made this time, after we have analyzed it this way, Ivan the Greater's view is that its performance should be quite improved compared to the "super bumblebee", but it is not so powerful that it is invincible, let alone that it is about to "compete with the F-35C". After all, no matter how the F/A-18E/F Block III is implemented, it is also based on the arithmetic of the Block II, and does not exceed the typical logic of the third-generation fighter and the third-and-a-half generation fighter.
The only bright spot should be that Boeing changed the auxiliary fuel tank to a CFT "conformal fuel tank" and then freed up a heavy-duty pylon to carry the EWP "closed weapon pod" improvement, but this improvement first of all has a limited improvement in the air combat performance of the whole aircraft. After all, we have said that the weapons pod is similar to the air battle with the auxiliary fuel tank, and secondly, this improvement plus some other limited improvement measures (such as coating the absorbing paint, etc.), whether it can effectively reduce the low detectable performance of the whole machine is also questionable. If the overall design remains unchanged, the stealth performance of the third-generation aircraft can be improved to the level of the fourth-generation aircraft by using the external weapon pods, then what should countries do with various types of fourth-generation fighters?
F-18F Block III fighter
Compared with all kinds of propaganda that is true or false and needs to be confirmed in its technical and tactical performance, the real advantage of this "silent Hornet" of the US military is probably two aspects:
"Silent Bumblebee"
After all, Boeing said that the operating cost of the "Silent Hornet" is less than $20,000 per hour, not to mention the F-35C, and even the Su-30MKK equipped with the Chinese Air Force has been cheaper than the sky. This is probably one of the aspects that most impress the U.S. Naval Aviation corps, which demands money for all kinds of projects and whose "landlords have no surplus" (laughs).
The second aspect is still the word "can be carried", after all, compared to the F-35C that can only use the belly magazine to carry 2 2000lb ammunition, under the same mount configuration, the "Silent Hornet" can carry 3 2000lb heavy ammunition, and the mounting capacity of different types of dexterous ammunition such as other SDB ammunition is also more than F-35C. Of course, the F-35C can also hang these ammunition under the wing pylon, but with such a hanging, what stealth performance does the F-35C have? Instead of dispatching the F-35C, it is better to dispatch the "Silent Bumblebee", after all, the "Silent Bumblebee" is cheap! This is probably where this Silent Hornet can really impress the U.S. Naval Aviation Corps.
F-35C plug-in ammunition can greatly disrupt stealth
So, since the US Naval Aviation Corps has begun to work hard for the "next generation of carrier-based aircraft", how should the future ship-based tactical aircraft of the Chinese Naval Aviation Corps go, and do we need to change a "super shark" on the basis of the J-15? We can leave that to our next meeting on this issue.