The US Navy simply can’t abandon the F/A-18 Super Hornet

Resume: The US Navy continues to invest in the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and recently awarded a $1.3 billion contract for 17 new Block III aircraft, despite the aircraft being and becoming a fourth-generation fighter surpassed by fifth-generation fighters such as the F-35 Lightning II.

-The Super Hornet, a mainstay of carrier air wings, offers improvements in fuel capacity and mission range over its predecessors and is equipped with advanced armament.

-However, questions remain about the Navy’s strategic decision to further invest in the Super Hornet as newer technologies and more capable aircraft such as the F-35 become available, indicating a potential mismatch with the demands of modern air combat.

Why is the US Navy still buying F/A-18s when the F-35 outsells them?

The Boeing F/A-18 Block III Super Hornet was “built for air superiority,” according to the Boeing website. Since the retirement of the F-14 Tomcat, the Super Hornet has been the backbone of the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier wing for many years.

These warbirds were made famous in Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich’s original 1996 summer film, Independence Day. In that iconic film, the fighter pilot characters of Will Smith and Harry Connick Jr. Earth against aliens while piloting a pair of Hornets.

Today, the Navy claims that the F/A-18 Super Hornets remain among the most affordable, advanced fighters in the U.S. arsenal. Of course, it should be noted that the Super Hornets are no longer the pinnacle of air superiority fighters. That honor goes to fifth-generation fighter aircraft (particularly the F-22A Raptor but also the F-35 Lightning II). The Navy (unfortunately) does not have a version of the F-22. But it does have a significant investment in the F-35.

So why is the Navy still spending vast sums of money on the Super Hornet when it should be building up its F-35 capabilities, since that warbird is the aircraft of the future?

F/A-18 Super Hornet: basic specifications

The F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III comes in two aircraft sub-types. A single-seat E model and a two-seat F model. On March 19 this year, the US Navy awarded Boeing a $1.3 billion contract for the delivery of 17 new Block IIIs between winter 2026 and the end of 2027. The F/A-18 E and F models are upgrades of the F-18 C and D variants.

The F/A-18 E and F models have an airframe that is 20 percent larger than its predecessors. It is 7,000 pounds heavier when flying empty and 15,000 pounds heavier when flying with a full load on board, compared to the F-18 C and D variants. The F/A-18 Super Hornets also carry 33 percent more fuel than the older version of the fighter. This has increased the birds’ mission range by as much as 41 percent and the bird’s endurance by 50 percent compared to the previous variants.

Overall, the F-18 program was considered an unparalleled success.

After all, it not only met all of the Army’s program requirements, but was also underweight by 400 pounds. And this warbird is truly astonishing. So please, don’t take the tone of this piece and downplay the incredible track record of the F/A-18. It’s just that there are now newer, better aircraft with far more capabilities than the F/A-18.

The F/A-18 Super Hornets can reach a top cruise speed of Mach 1.7. These birds have a range of 1,467 miles. Their armament includes a single M61A1/A2 gun. These fighters carry AIM-9 sidewinders, AIM-9X missiles, AIM-7 Sparrows, AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles. They can also carry Harpoon, Harm, SLAM, SLAM-ER and Maverick missiles. In addition to these systems, these birds can fly with standoff weapons and Joint-Direct Attack munitions. As seen in Harrison Ford’s classic film (based on the book by Tom Clancy), Clear and present danger, all versions of this bird can drop laser-guided ammunition.

Australia and Kuwait are major foreign purchases of the Super Hornet.

Why did the Navy buy more F/A-18 Super Hornets?

Along with this new batch of F/A-18s comes “critical technical data” that U.S. Navy leadership believes will ensure the Super Hornet “continues to provide significant combat capabilities into the 2040s.” It seems strange that the F/A-18 Super Hornet continues to play a predominant role in a carrier air wing. After all, the US Navy has made significant investments in the aircraft carrier version of the F-35 Lightning II.

According to many reports, the 17 Block IIIs will be the last tranche of F/A-18 Super Hornets the Navy buys as their price has increased. Nevertheless, the Navy, like the other branches of the United States Armed Forces, clearly has no idea what it wants, what systems it needs, and why it might need those systems. The creation of mixed fleets of fourth-generation fighters, such as the Super Hornets, along with the F-35s is bizarre.

Yes, mission sets for these birds could be developed at the same time, but why the redundancy? Unlike the Air Force’s struggle to cancel the beloved A-10 Warthog to fund more of their versions of the F-35, the F/A-18 Super Hornet is a less capable version of the F-35.

Boeing and the Navy insist they have made these newer Block IIIs more advanced than the older models of F/A-18s. But they are still only fourth-generation fighters. The inherent limitations of the F/A-18 will therefore become apparent when these warbirds are pitted against fifth-generation fighters belonging to rival states, such as China or Russia.

Yet the Navy just spent $1.3 billion on these birds, which won’t be ready for service for another two years.

The Navy should focus on the F-35, not the F/A-18

In every conceivable way, the F-35 outperforms the F/A-18. Furthermore, the F-35 could establish better air dominance over rival armies than the Super Hornets. Of course, the largest investment for the Navy would have been building an aircraft carrier version of the F-22A Raptor.

Unfortunately, the Navy’s short-sighted planners chose to hesitate, moving ahead with the F/A-18 procurement – knowing these systems would go the way of the dodo bird – and ultimately deciding in 2001 to overtake the Air Force , through the purchase of their first block of carrier-based F-35s. There is no doubt that the F/A-18 program has been a tremendous success for the military. Yet the continued investment and expansion of these birds threatens to undermine combat readiness as the Navy needs more fifth-generation fighters on its carriers and fewer fourth-generation aircraft.

About the author

Brandon J. Weicherta national security of national importance analyst, is a former congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who contributes to The Washington Times, the Asia Times and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, will be released on October 22 from Encounter Books. Weichert can be followed on Twitter @WeTheBrandon.