MA Publications Bookstore MDFSD-07 Super Hornet Back Issue

Super Hornet
Boeing F/A-18E/F and EA-18G Growler

MDF Scaled Down #7
By Andy Evans

Built on the success of the F/A-18C and D ‘Legacy Hornets’, the F/A-18E single-seat and the F/A-18F two-seat Super Hornet, and the unique EA-18G Growler give the US Navy an unparalleled seaborne strike and electronic warfare capability. The newer Super Hornet is about twenty-five percent larger than its predecessor, but contains fortytwo percent fewer structural parts, and can fly greater ranges with heavier payloads, has more powerful engines and provides greater survivability, and the brand new electronic warfare variant, the EA-18G adds tactical jamming to the aircrafts already impressive abilities. Entering service in 1999, the Super Hornet replaced the mighty F-14 Tomcat in the fleet defence role and also works in conjunction with the ‘Legacy’ Hornets in the strike role. The forward fuselage remains unchanged from the earlier aircraft, but the remainder of the Super Hornet shares little with the F/A-18C and D models. In July 2002, the F/A-18E/F began its maiden operational deployment on board USS Abraham Lincoln, and in November 2002, the aircraft made its combat entry, striking air defence sites in Southern Iraq with Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs). The aircraft was also deployed as part of Operation ‘Iraqi Freedom’ in March 2003, and has since been used in action over Afghanistan, Libya and Syria and continues in operational deployments around the globe. This new Scaled Down brings the Super Hornet story to life.