Eastern Suburbs Scale Modelling Club .: Chris Coopers 1/144 F/A-18F Super Hornet/Carrier Diorama

.: Chris Coopers 1/144 Dragon F/A-18F Super Hornet/Carrier Deck Diorama.

The Super Hornet is a larger and more advanced variant on the F/A-18C/D Hornet. An early version was marketed by McDonnell Douglas as Hornet 2000 in the 1980s. The Hornet 2000 concept was an advanced version of the F/A-18 with a larger wing, longer fuselage to carry more fuel and more powerful engines.

The early 1990s brought a number of problems for US naval aviation. The A-12 Avenger II program, intended to replace the obsolete A-6 Intruders and A-7 Corsair IIs, had run into serious problems and was canceled. The Gulf War revealed that the US Navy's strike capability lagged behind that of the U.S. Air Force in certain respects.

With no clean-sheet program likely to produce results before about 2020, updating an existing design became an attractive approach. As an alternative to the A-12, McDonnell Douglas proposed the "Super Hornet" (or, initially, "Hornet II"), originally put forward in the 1980s to improve early F/A-18 models,[4] and serve as an alternate replacement for the A-6 Intruder which had a greater range / payload than the A-7 Corsair that the original Hornet was designed to replace. At the same time, the Navy needed a fleet defense fighter to replace the canceled NATF, which was a proposed navalized variant of the F-22 Raptor.

The Super Hornet was first ordered by the U.S. Navy in 1992. The Navy would also direct that this fighter replace the aging F-14D Tomcat, essentially basing all naval combat jets on Hornet variants until the introduction of the F-35C Lightning II.[5] The Navy retained the F/A-18 designation to sell the program to Congress as a low-risk "derivative", though the Super Hornet is largely a new aircraft with little more than an aerodynamic resemblance to previous Hornets. The Super Hornet did retain most of the avionic systems from the F/A-18C/D's then current configuration.

The Super Hornet first flew on November 29, 1995. Initial production on the F/A-18E/F began in 1995. Flight testing started in 1996 with the F/A-18E/F's first carrier landing in 1997. Low-rate production began in March 1997with full production beginning in September 1997. it meeting cost, schedule and weight (400 lb, 181 kg below) requirements.

Despite the same general layout and systems, there are many differences from the original F/A-18 Hornet. The Super Hornet is informally referred to as the "Rhino" to distinguish it from earlier model "legacy" Hornets. The "Rhino" reference is important for safe aircraft carrier flight operations. For example; so that the dampening mechanisms anchoring the arrestor cables are set correctly for the higher landing weight of a Super Hornet. Current versions include the F/A-18E single-seater and F/A-18F two-seater.

The U.S. Navy's F-14 squadrons have converted to the Super Hornet, which is also taking on the missions of the retired A-6 Intruder, S-3 Viking, and KA-6D. An electronic warfare variant, the EA-18G Growler, will replace the aging EA-6B Prowler. The Navy calls this reduction in aircraft types a "neck-down". In the Vietnam War, the Super Hornet type missions were covered by no less than the A-1/A-4/A-7 (light attack), A-6 (medium attack), F-8/F-4 (fighter), RA-5C (recon), KA-3/KA-6 (tanker) and EA-6 (electronic warfare.

In early 2008, Boeing has had some discussion with the US and Australian militaries about creating a Super Hornet Block III, a generation 4.75 upgrade with extra forward stealth capabilities and extended range, to be succeeded in 2024 by a sixth-generation fighter.

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