before the rst example arrives at Kelly
Field, in San Antonio, in 2019.Block III
Alongside SLM, Boeing is also reaping
the rewards of its long-term Advanced
Super Hornet initiatives. The Block III
standard will now be introduced in
new production aircraft from 2020 andBoeing will then begin upgrading Block
II Super Hornets in 2022.
In addition to upgrading the
ghter’s Raytheon AN/APG-79 active
electronically scanned array (AESA)
radar, Block III will add the AN/ALQ-
214 Integrated Defensive Electronic
Countermeasures (IDECM) Block IV
suite and the Lockheed Martin AN/ ying missions that included hauling as
many as 10 1,000lb GBU-32 Joint Direct
Attack Munitions (JDAMs).Extended service
Last year, Boeing received a $73-million
contract to begin work on a service
life modi cation (SLM) for the F/A-
18E/F eet that will increase the Super
Hornet’s life from 6,000 to 9,000+
hours. The program is a precursor to
a subsequent e ort that will upgrade
existing Block II Super Hornets to the
Block III con guration.
Boeing plans to initially upgrade four
Super Hornets at its St Louis, Missouri,
facility but plans call for a production
line to be set up in San Antonio, Texas
in 2019. The rst F/A-18F to be inducted
into the SLM program arrived at St Louis
on April 5, 2018. F/A-18F BuNo 166619
was last assigned to VFA-106 at NAS
Oceana, Virginia. Although the initial
mod will require 18 months, Boeing
expects to reduce the production time
to around 12 months and will upgrade
40-50 Super Hornets annually at St Louis
and at the new San Antonio facility.
Six aircraft will be inducted at St LouisUS NAVY & MARINE CORPS AIR POWER YEARBOOK 2018
SUPER HORNET^4140-43 Super Hornet block 3 C.indd 41 31/05/2018 18:17