HORNET SHAKE-UP
US NAVY TO RETIRE OR SCRAP ‘CLASSIC’ HORNETS
T
HE US NAVY is
accelerating its transition
to the F/A-18E/F and is
making plans to divest
itself of nearly 140 ‘classic’
Hornets. Seen as acost-cutting move, the service
believes that it will recoup nearly
$1 billion in maintenance costs
over five years by retiring the older
aircraft. Under the plan, the service
will strike 136 F/A-18A, B, C and DHornets from its inventory by 2020.
The move would provide the
service with an additional pool of
spare parts, and allow it to transfer
the best of the jets to the Marine
Corps to help improve readiness,
and to reserve squadrons.
The plan will recoup around $
million in 2019 and $852 million
across the future years defense
plan (FYDP) that runs through- At the start of Fiscal Year
2018 the naval aviation inventory
included more than 40 F/A-18A/Bs
and in excess of 200 F/A-18C/Ds.
The service had previously made
the decision to transition its last
operational F/A-18C strike fighter
squadrons, comprising VFA-34,
VFA-37, VFA-83 and VFA-131, to the
Super Hornet by the end of 2019.
The latter squadron began the
process in October 2017.
Conversion of VFA-204 at NAS New
Orleans JRB is already under way
and the ‘River Rattlers’ had received
several F/A-18Cs by early March.
The squadron expects to take on
additional aircraft at a rate of
around two per month.
Meanwhile, Boeing has received a
$73-million contract to begin work
on a service life modification (SLM)
for the F/A-18E/F fleet that will
increase the Super Hornet’s life
from 6,000 to 9,000-plus hours. The
program is a precursor to a
subsequent effort that will
upgrade existing Block II Super
Hornets to the Block III
configuration. The contractor will
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 during 2019.MISSILE TESTS UNDER WAY
ARMY AVIATORS HAVE begun
limited user tests of the Lockheed
Martin Joint Air-to-Ground Missile
(JAGM) at the US Army Yuma
Proving Ground (YPG) in Arizona.
Testing is being conducted
by personnel from US Army
Operational Test Command’s
Aviation Test Directorate Rotary-
Wing Test Division and the
Yuma Test Center at YPG, and
the Redstone Test Center based
at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.
The tests are being conducted in
advance of the missile receiving
approval to enter into low-rateinitial production. The JAGM
combines the capabilities of the
AGM-114K Hell re II and AGM-114L
Longbow Hell re missiles into
a single weapon. The missile is
capable of guidance via semi-
active laser or radio frequency,
which allows it to switch between
modes during ight to its target. It
is more capable in adverse weather
conditions, including smoke, dust
or fog, and has a longer range than
the Hell re. The latest series of tests
were conducted against multiple
live targets that included remotely
controlled moving T-72 tanks.An AH-64E fi res a Joint Air-to-Ground Missile at a target on the Cibola
Range at the US Army Yuma Proving Grounds during limited user
testing. US Army/Tad BrowningPEGASUS HITS A NEW SNAG
BOEING’S KC 46A TANKER program
was cited as having two additional
de ciencies as Boeing struggles
to deliver the rst examples to the
USAF. The category 1 de ciencies
involve the remote vision (RVS) and
centerline drogue refueling (CDS)
systems. Developed by Rockwell
Collins, the RVS — which is used
by the boom operator to guide the
refueling boom into the receptacle on
the receiver aircraft — is not meeting
air force requirements. It is also a
factor in the previously disclosed
boom scraping issue. According to
the USAF the second issue involves
unexpected disconnects of the CDSfrom receiver aircraft and engineers
are attempting to discover the root
cause of the problem. The contractor
has, however, made progress in
solving several other issues including
the uncommanded extension of the
refueling boom during disconnect
from the receiver aircraft. Later in
March, Boeing planned to begin
testing a software x to the RVS that
it hopes will also solve the boom
scraping problem. The USAF recently
revealed that it does not expect to
begin accepting the new tankers until
the end of 2018. Boeing’s contract
requires the delivery of 18 KC-46As by
October 2018.KING STALLION COMPLETES ENVELOPE EXPANSION
SIKORSKY AIRCRAFT’S CH 53K
program achieved another milestone
on February 10 when the King
Stallion completed the maximum-
weight external lift of a 36,000lb
(16,329kg) payload from the
helicopter’s single center-point cargo
hook. The event, which was carried
out at the contractor’s development
ight center in West Palm Beach,
Florida, marked the completion of
critical ight envelope expansionactivities for the CH-53K. After lifting
the load into a hover the helicopter,
which operated at a gross weight of
91,000lb (41,277kg), demonstrated
in- ight handling qualities. During
envelope expansion testing the
CH-53K has been own at speeds
up to 200kt, angles of bank as great
as 60°, conducted take-o s and
landings from sloped surfaces up to
12°, external load auto-jettison and
gun re testing.The USMC has deployed the BAE Systems Advanced Precision Kill Weapon
System (APKWS) laser-guided rocket system on its F/A-18C Hornets for the
fi rst time, VMFA-314 ‘Black Knights’ being the fi rst to use it. NAVAIRUNITED STATES [NEWS]
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