Navy's Getting an Upgrade

The Navy's Super Hornets Are Getting an Upgrade

The Super Hornet Block III will have improvement to allow it to fight alongside the F-35C for the foreseeable future.

By Kyle Mizokami

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Alex Corona

The U.S. Navy and Boeing are working to update the service’s fleet of Super Hornet fighters to a new Block III standard while gradually updating existing planes to the new standard. The Super Hornet Block III will have improvements to the plane’s electronics, radar cross section, and range, allowing it to fight alongside the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter for the foreseeable future.


The Super Hornet fighter was introduced in the 1990s as a bigger, more capable version of the original Hornet fighter, now called “legacy Hornet.” As older aircraft such as the F-14 Tomcat and legacy Hornet peel off to that great boneyard in the sky, the Super Hornet has gradually come to dominate the flight decks of the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carriers, and today most of the Navy’s strike fighter squadrons fly either the F/A-18E, the single seat version, or the two seat F/A-18F.

The U.S. Navy is purchasing enough F-35C Joint Strike Fighters to eventually equip half of the service’s strike fighter squadrons deployed on America’s aircraft carriers. The remaining half will still consist of Super Hornets. The new Block III standard will keep these fighters relevant as the Navy contemplates flying against advanced air defenses and aerial threats from countries such as China and Russia.

One Block III upgrade, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports, is the use of low-observable coatings to reduce the Super Hornet’s radar cross signature. The Super Hornet was originally designed with a lower radar cross signature than the legacy Hornet, but any aircraft planning to operate alongside or otherwise near the very stealthy F-35C needs to up its stealth game. The Block III upgrade also consists of an “advanced cockpit system with a large-area display for improved user interface, a more powerful computer called the distributed targeting processor network, a bigger data pipe for passing information called Tactical Targeting Network Technology."

Another upgrade schedule for Block III is designed to extend the lifetime of the jet from 6,000 to 9,000 hours. That will buy the Navy up to a decade more flight time per jet. More upgrades include a push to make the aircraft easier to maintain and a reset of their environmental control systems.

The last Block III upgrade feature is the use of Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFTs) that Popular Mechanics covered last month. CFTs could extend the Hornet’s range by up to 120 nautical miles, and coupled with the MQ-25 Stingray aerial refueling drone will increase the odds Block III Super Hornets can hold distant targets at risk without also placing the 5,000 sailors on their aircraft carrier at risk.

The Navy will buy the first set of 24 Block III Super Duper Hornets (unofficial name) next year, for delivery in 2020, and will start rotating older jets back to Boeing for upgrades this year. By 2027, the sea service expects two out of every four strike fighter squadrons deployed to the fleet will consist of Super Duper Hornets.

Source: Aviation Week & Space Technology