New from St Louis: Boeing’s F-15QA Eagle and Block III Super Hornet

David C Isby profiles the latest variants of the F-15 Eagle and F/A-18 Super Hornet

MILITARY F-15QA EAGLE & BLOCK III F/A-18 SUPER HORNET

An artist’s illustration of a Block III F/A-18F Super Hornet loaded with a Lockheed Martin ASG-34 Infrared Search and Track pod on the centreline pylon.
Boeing

Boeing’s latest fighters, the F-15QA Eagle - for Qatar - and F/A-18 Block III Super Hornet - for the US Navy – are both going to be produced at the St Louis, Missouri facility until 2022 and likely beyond. These upgraded fourth-generation fighters are going to be in service into the 2040s. Boeing’s warm production lines offer potential economies of scale for further international customers buying the advanced variants of the Eagle and Super Hornet as well as lifeextension upgrades to existing aircraft, most notably US Air Force F-15C Eagles (still being considered) and US Navy F/A-18 Block II Super Hornets (ready to start modification).

F-15QA Eagle

Qatar’s $4 billion buy of 36 (plus an option for 36 more) F-15QA (Qatar Advanced) two-seat, air-to-ground Eagles under the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, as part of a $12 billion package, was the result of many years of diplomatic and military engagement by the Gulf State and the United States. Production is planned to start in 2019 and be completed by 2022.

Qatar’s current confrontation with Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, plus the continued threat from a resurgent Iran has made fighter sales important as a way for Qatar to demonstrate its continued support from allies outside the Gulf. As with any major high-performance aircraft procurement in the Middle East, diplomatic, symbolic and legitimating considerations can often overshadow the operational ones. This was demonstrated by Qatar’s decision, announced in September, to procure a squadron of 24 Eurofighter Typhoon fighters, which follows the procurement, announced in May 2015, of 24 French-built Dassault Rafale fighters, the first of which is expected to arrive in mid-2018.

This build-up will provide four squadrons of three different advanced fourth-generation fighters which will replace the Qatar Emirati Air Force’s (QEAF) a single squadron of 12 (nine currently flying) low-hour 20-yearold Dassault Mirage 2000-5s operated by 7 Squadron based at Doha. The build-up is planned to take place simultaneously with a dramatic expansion of Qatar’s naval capability, including the procurement of seven new warships from Italy. While Qatar has recently invested in an indigenous pilot training capability, this is not yet operational. Unlike the KSA and UAE, Qatar has not invested in an indigenous aerospace industry to help support its aircraft. With a total population of 600,000, Qatar will likely have to look to the world market for pilots and technicians that are capable of operating alongside US, UK, French and other western air arms during exercises like the series called Eagle Resolve or deployments such as the one staged with Mirage 2000-5s from Crete during operations over Libya in 2011. Qatar’s Mirage 2000-5s have also deployed as part of the KSA-led coalition for operations over Yemen, and to Turkey for air defence missions during coalition air operations against ISIS insurgents in Syria. Qatar may base one of its two F-15QA squadrons, with 12 or more aircraft, in the United States for training.

The F-15QA sale was approved in the closing months of President Obama’s administration and the United States signed a letter of agreement on June 14, 2017. Aside from the types and numbers involved, details about the F-15QA, or about the other systems, weapons, training (through aircrew transition to the F-15QA), operations and maintenance support that make up Qatar’s US-supplied package, have not been made public.

The F-15QA is reportedly based on the most advanced current Eagle, the F-15SA (Saudi Advanced), which finally and officially started operations with the Royal Saudi Air Force earlier this year, after completing a prolonged development and testing process managed by US Air Force professionals under the FMS programme. Qatar will be using the same approach for its Eagle procurement, but without the introduction of new technologies or capabilities, so the F-15QA’s development should be briefer and less expensive.

The F-15QA has reportedly, like the F-15SA, been designed from the outset for a 20,000-hour service life. It uses the fly-by-wire system first introduced for the F-15SA, which required a complete retesting programme throughout the flight envelope, contributing to delays with Saudi’s programme. Also following the F-15SA’s lead, two General Electric F110-GE-129 engines will power the F-15QA.

Sensors will include the Raytheon APG- 81(V)1 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar – an advance over the F-15SA which uses the APG-63(V)3 - and the BAE Systems integrated Digital Electronic Warfare System providing passive sensor detection, threat warning, active jamming and chaff and flare countermeasures dispensing. As with the F-15SA, the F-15QA will feature two new wingtip weapon stations, numbers 1 and 9, capable of carrying Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missiles; provision, in both cockpits, for the Vision Systems International Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System; a Link 16-compatible data link, upgraded mission computers, advanced wide-angle head-up displays and multicolour, multi-functional cockpit displays. Conformal fuel tanks, mounted along the fuselage sides, provide additional fuel and weapon hard points.

Qatar’s package includes multiple types of sensor and navigation pods as well as air-toair and air-to-ground weapons. The quantities listed in the panel represent ceilings and include hardware that may be ordered for the 36 options, so the quantities of systems, if not weapons, procured are initially likely to be half those given; but the F-15QA will be delivered with the capability to use all of the systems listed.

One interesting fact about the F-15QA is that it may not be the end of Boeing’s development of the F-15 Eagle. Israel is considering buying one or two squadrons of advanced Eagles, unofficially referred to as F-15IA (Israeli Advanced) or F-15SX. If procured, the aircraft would provide Israel with a long-range strike capability for decades to come, replacing the current F-15I Ra’am and supplement F-35A Adir Joint Strike Fighters in other air-to-ground missions. The F-15AI would use an advanced AESA radar and incorporate datalinks and weapons systems currently flying on the F-15I.

Perhaps the biggest question about the Eagle’s future is what the US Air Force will do with its F-15C fieet, now reduced to three active-duty squadrons (the 44th and 67th Fighter Squadrons based at Kadena, Okinawa and the 492nd Fighter Squadron based at RAF Lakenheath, UK) with the remainder assigned to the Air National Guard, by a fieet totalling fewer than 200 combatcoded aircraft? Will they be upgraded to allow them to continue until 2040, flying both air superiority and homeland defence missions? Alternatively, will they be withdrawn in the late 2020s and replaced by accelerated F-35A production, possibly with a number of F-15Cs or F-16Cs being upgraded as an interim measure? Competing for funding is a proposal to modify all Lockheed F-22 Raptors to make them combat-capable. While only 31 well-worn F-15Cs have been identified for retirement by 2022, no decision is currently scheduled on the future of the remaining fieet until that year. Ongoing Eagle production at St. Louis is a strong argument for continued investment in the aircraft.

F-15QA WEAPON AND

SYSTEMS PACKAGE

80 Lockheed Martin AAQ-13 LANTIRN navigation pods.

80 Lockheed Martin AAQ-33 Sniper advanced targeting pods

80 Lockheed Martin AAS-42 Infrared Search and Track System pods

200 Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missiles

250 Raytheon AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles

100 Raytheon AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles

200 Raytheon AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapons

80 Boeing AGM-84L-1 Harpoon anti-ship missiles

200 Raytheon AGM-65H/K Maverick air-to-surface missiles

500 Boeing GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance kits

500 Boeing GBU-31(V1) JDAM guidance kits

250 Boeing GBU-54 Laser JDAM guidance kits

250 GBU-56 Laser JDAM guidance kits

500 500lb (227kg) BLU-111/B penetrating bombs

500 2,000lb (907kg) BLU-117/B penetrating bombs

Block III F/A-18 Super Hornet

Revival of US Navy F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet production was moved forward this year. The original US Department of Defense FY2017 budget request did not include for procurement of new Super Hornets, except for two replacement aircraft to be procured with overseas contingency operations (OCO) funding. This has changed. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate agreed on a supplemental appropriations bill for FY2017 that added 12 new-production aircraft at a cost of $979 million. The FY2018 budget request includes 14 new production Block III Super Hornets, with 80 - at a cost of $7.1 billion – included in the FY2018 Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP), covering production up to FY2022: 23 in FY 2019, 14 each in FY2020 and 2021 and 15 in FY2022. Navy operational requirements may keep production going, likely to 120 or more aircraft.

Starting in FY2019, all new-production F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornets will be delivered in Block III configuration, whether to the US Navy or international customers. At the same time, the US Navy’s current Block II Super Hornets (but not Block Is), which are fitted with an AESA radar, will be upgraded to Block III configuration as part of the Service Life Modernization Program (SLMP) that will extend their service lives from 6,000 to 9,000 flight hours. The FYDP includes $265 million for the SLMP.

The first Super Hornet to reach 6,000 flight hours came about this year. By the mid-2020s, some 60 to 70 aircraft will reach 6,000 hours annually. Boeing has said the Block II to Block III upgrade could be done, in production quantities, for about $10 million per aircraft. New-production Block IIIs incorporate structural upgrades – reinforced longerons and wing structure – for a 9,000-hour life. The SLMP will be carried out at US Navy depot facilities with Boeing participation.

Investing in the Block III will keep the US Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornet fieet operational past 2040. New-production Block III aircraft will enable the Navy to retire (rather than upgrade under the SLMP) at least some of its Block I force, which have logged extensive flying hours, as a result of flying extensive combat missions since 2003 and absorbing operational tasks previously carried out by F/A-18C Hornet-equipped squadrons; units that have suffered low levels of availability in recent years. Acquisition of new Block III aircraft would also enable the Navy to accelerate the retirement of its last operational Naval Reserve F/A-18A and F/A-18B Hornets, still equipping Fighter Composite Squadron 12 (VFC-12) ‘Fighting Omars’ based at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia and Strike Fighter Squadron 204 (VFA-204) ‘Death Rattlers’ based at Joint Reserve Base New Orleans, Louisiana. Both squadrons, like their US Marine Corps Reserve counterparts, have particularly suffered from low availability in recent years.

The US Navy foresees that its F/A-18 Super Hornets will operate, for the remainder of their service lives, and with the F-35C Lightning II, once the fifth-generation jet achieves initial operational capability in 2018-2019.

A shot of the Boeingoperated F-15E test and demonstrator aircraft, serial number 86-0183, in the advanced F-15 Eagle configuration with a multirole weapon payload.
Boeing

The current plan is to have two squadrons of each (comprising 12 Block IIIs and ten F-35Cs) along with one squadron of EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, flying from each deployed US Navy carrier. The tanker role, currently provided by Super Hornets, will be taken over by the forthcoming MQ-25 Stingray unmanned Carrier-Based Aerial- Refueling System.

The Super Hornet Block III configuration is a development of Boeing’s Advanced Super Hornet originally offered to the US Navy and international customers in 2013, but omits some of the signaturereduction technology (such as an external low-observable hump-backed enclosed weapons pod), but retains unspecified advanced signature enhancements to the nose section and angle of attack indicators.

Most of the proposed Advanced Super Hornet’s systems have been retained for the Block III, including new enhanced General Electric F-414-400 engines.

The Super Hornet Block III is designed from the outset for networked combat operations using the Naval Integrated Fire Control Counter Air (NIFC-CA) network, linked to the Distributed Targeting Processor Networked (DTP-N) mission computer (which Boeing says offers two orders of magnitude improvement in performance over the current baseline, configured to enable an open architecture) and its Rockwell Collins-developed Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNT) multichannel datalink system.

Additional situational awareness generated by greater network connectivity will be presented to the aircrew on an Elbit advanced cockpit system with a 10 x 19-inch (254 x 484mm) display and improved crew interfaces in both cockpits. Mounted atop the fuselage at the wing roots, CFTs fitted with weapon rails free up under wing pylons for weapons, and provide the Block III with some 120nm (220km) of additional range, for a maximum of up to 750nm (1,385km).

The Block III will retain upgraded variants of the Block II’s sensors: the Raytheon APG- 79 AESA radar, Exelis ALQ-214 Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures Block IV suit and the Lockheed Martin ASG-34 Infrared Search and Track (IRST) pod, available as an interim measure. An advanced IRST system is currently under development and is expected to be ready by 2020. It will be internally mounted with its seeker head housed in a low-drag lower fuselage fairing forward of the nose wheel, an installation originally designed for the Advanced Super Hornet.

Production of the Super Hornet Block III and the SLMP will provide economies of scale for the already-planned upgrade programme dubbed the Advanced EA-18G Growler. In addition to the Block III upgrades, the advanced Growler upgrade will add the capability to use Raytheon’s Next Generation Jammer (ready by 2021), enhanced mission computing and datalink capabilities.

Among international customers, Australia has details of the SLMP and Block III upgrade programmes, but its F/A-18F Super Hornets currently have less than 2,000 hours of flight time. Canada has put its $5.23 billion order for ten F/A-18Es and eight F/A- 18Fs on hold, though this sale was approved by the US State Department on September 12. This is an important procurement that may lead to a follow-on Super Hornet buy to replace Canada’s current CF-18 Hornets built back in the 1980s. Boeing filed a trade complaint with the US Department of Commerce, alleging that Canadianbuilt Bombardier passenger aircraft were receiving unfair price subsidies (although the majority of content is produced in the US). As an alternative, Canada has considered buying older Hornets from Australia.

Kuwait’s current $10.1 billion order for 40 Super Hornets (eight of the two-seat aircraft will be based in the United States for training) will probably be delivered in Block III configuration. Other potential Super Hornet customers, such as Finland and Malaysia, will probably buy Block III aircraft if they go ahead. Boeing has offered the Block III and extensive industrial cooperation amounting to significant technology transfer for the Indian Navy and Air Force. Switzerland will also likely be offered the Block III Super Hornet.