Pentagon to arm F/A-18 Super Hornet with hypersonic missiles
The decades-old F/A-18 has gone through a large number of upgrades, adjustments, enhancements and service-life extension programs
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Could arming the F/A-18 Super Hornet with hypersonic missiles keep the aircraft relevant for the next decade or two as larger numbers of F-35s arrive and the service prepares for stealthy, highly networked, 5th-Gen empowered, longer-range war?
Possibly. The decades-old F/A-18 has gone through a large number of upgrades, adjustments, enhancements and service-life extension programs to preserve its combat functionality in increasingly high-threat environments. The U.S. Navy has spent years reinforcing the airframes of F/A-18s, upgrading weapons, adding new avionics, sensors and electronics and even integrating carrier-landing enhancing software to the jets called “magic carpet.” The U.S. Navy has also engineered conformal fuel tanks for the F/A-18 to extend mission dwell time and potentially lower its radar signature.
The goal with all of this is to ensure that the 4th-gen fighter remains viable against a new generation of enemy sensors, weapons and air defenses.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}What would a hypersonic cruise missile do for an F/A-18?
Possibly more than everything else by far given the attack dimensions, range and speed it would bring to the aircraft. A hypersonic, air-launched cruise missile fired from an F/A-18 would entirely revamp the tactical impact of the aircraft and massively change its operational envelope. It seems almost too obvious or self-evident to mention that firing a hypersonic weapon from an F/A-18 could help offset its vulnerability and enable it to attack much faster and at much greater ranges, thereby decreasing its exposure to air defenses and enemy 5th Gen aircraft.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In this Monday, March 20, 2017, photograph, an F-18 fighter jet flies over the USS George H.W. Bush as the vessel travels toward the Strait of Hormuz. The arrival of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf marks the first such deployment under new U.S. President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell) (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Perhaps all of this helps explain why the Pentagon is now specifically configuring a hypersonic cruise missile able to fire from a carrier-launched F-18.
“We have a contract with Boeing to mature a dual nose scramjet design. They're working with Air Jet, and we're doing this so that we can have an option for the Navy that is compatible with their F-18,” Gillian Bussey, director, Joint Hypersonics Transition Office, told reporters, according to a Pentagon transcript.
A hypersonic cruise missile-armed F/A-18 would also bring new strategies and tactics to aircraft carrier power projection by bringing now unprecedented methods of attack in striking range of enemy shores. A maneuvering F-18 could adjust to air and ground targets quickly, and possibly get into an optimal offensive attack position much faster than a ship-launched weapon might be able to.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}HOW AI CHANGES ATTACK MISSIONS FOR US FIGHTER JETS AND BOMBERS
Engineering an F-18-launched hypersonic cruise missile able to achieve and sustain speeds at five times the speed of sound with the proper guidance technology is not a simple task, Bussey explained.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She cited six different technical areas of focus now capturing the attention of scientists, weapons developers and researchers. They include “materials and manufacturing, guidance, navigation and control, propulsion, primarily air-breathing propulsion, environments and … we are looking at issues related to warheads, and blast effects,” Bussey explained.
-- Kris Osborn is the Managing Editor of Warrior Maven and The Defense Editor of The National Interest --