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Survey could alter fighter gap

Although they’ve been in the fleet for less than a decade, the Navy’s F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets already are undergoing a detailed inspection to determine their projected service life, Navy officials said.

The one- and two-seat Super Hornets began a service life assessment program, or SLAP, last year. That’s the first step to determine how long the planes will last and what significant repairs may be needed to extend them beyond their initial minimum life span of 6,000 flight hours.

The oldest Super Hornets have logged 3,200 to 3,800 flight hours, and Navy officials hope to extend that to 9,000, according Marcia Hart-Wise, a spokeswoman for the F/A-18 program office at Naval Air Systems Command.

The results of the SLAP will help shed new light on the “strike fighter gap,” the projected shortfall in fighter jets the Navy will face as F/A-18 A-D models begin retiring before their replacements, F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters, join the fleet.

The gap has become a hot-button issue for the Navy as congressional lawmakers debate whether to spend millions on a new block of Super Hornets to bolster the fighter fleet until the carrier version of the F-35 arrives in 2015.

The Navy is closely studying the condition of the A through D models, which were put into service in the 1980s and are nearing the end of their service life. The latest reports say those older aircraft will have to retire earlier than expected, increasing the shortfall.

The Navy initially hoped to extend the older Hornets to 10,000 flight hours, but their unexpectedly poor condition likely will make extension beyond 8,600 exorbitantly expensive, Navy officials said.

The SLAP for the Super Hornets could, for the first time, draw those planes into the fighter gap equation, altering projections about the future fleet size and the urgency of buying new planes.

“They want to know what kind of work would be needed to extend the E and F series, and how much would it cost,” said Richard Aboulafia, a defense consultant with the Teal Group in Virginia.

Boeing, which makes the Super Hornets, has been eager to forge a new multi-year contract with the Navy to sell dozens of new Super Hornets at roughly $50 million per aircraft.

Building the future fighter fleet

The Navy’s study of its existing Super Hornets will examine the costs and benefits of extending the life of those aircraft. That in turn will help Navy leaders and lawmakers determine whether to buy more F-35s or Super Hornets.

Examining the Super Hornets will help shape that debate in the coming years.

“The tac-air gap will evolve each year. Any tac-air gap will have to look at all service life extension programs and models,” said Jim McAleese, principal at the McAleese and Associates defense consulting firm in Virginia.

Data on the Super Hornets’ life will help address any skepticism from the Office of the Secretary of Defense about the nature and scope of the shortfall, he said.

“OSD is going to be very concerned about the how credible and how genuine the tac-air gap is,” McAleese said.

Super Hornet 101

The Navy has begun to assess the life span of the fleet’s roughly 300 F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets.

Past: The first Super Hornet, an F/A-18E, was delivered to Strike Fighter Squadron 115 and deployed with the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in July 2002.

Present: The Navy is still receiving new Hornets from Boeing’s active production line. The oldest aircraft have logged 3,200 to 3,800 flight hours.

Future: While the Super Hornets were designed to reach at least 6,000 flight hours, the Navy hopes to develop an affordable service life extension program for the planes to reach 9,000 lifetime flight hours.

• Source: Naval Air Systems Command