Boeing has announced that is currently planning to end production of the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter aircraft in late 2025. According to the company, the decision will allow it to redirect its resources to future military aircraft programs and ramp up production for newer programs such as the T-7A Red Hawk trainer and MQ-25 Stingray autonomous refueling aircraft. Boeing further stated that it intends to focus on modernization and upgrade efforts for the existing F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler fleet.
The Blue Angels got new planes in 2020. Upgraded from legacy Hornets to Super Hornets. So probably gonna be until the Super Hornet is completely retired before they change again.
I was wondering about that as I watched the drone shows… do we need the pilots. I would in most cases say, yes.
AI is still not capable of making good decisions. It has no moral judgement. A single pilot with five drones on the wing with the capability of multitasking is the answer to the future fighter aviation.
Even the pilot requirements are clearly changing. We need technical thinking pilots that can manage several systems at once while making split second decisions. The F35 is a crappy plane to fight solo… the F16 can take it down one on one.
But, add in the tech and dozens of planes with sensors… it can take down any legacy aircraft before they know it is there.
The F35 is a fighter, but not in the sense of an F18 or the Predecessor planes, when true abilities to maneuver an aircraft into a kill position were needed.
The F35 is a super cool aircraft, and the Air Force demo pilot Wolf is a very talented aerobatic demonstration pilot. But, I don’t see it as an aerobatic team demo aircraft in the future.
Legacy demos will likely continue, like the WWII planes.
I don’t understand the comment below as Boeing didn’t start manufacturing the F18 until 1997 - “Boeing reports that it has delivered more than 2,000 Hornets, Super Hornets and Growlers since the F/A-18 was introduced in 1983.”
Would be easy to fact-check if Avweb linked to sources on releases like this but for some reason they stubbornly refuse to adopt that piece of basic internet courtesy.
Yeah that kind of stuff doesn’t ring right to me either. I work for a great big company that has merged and swallowed up and so forth (including the original company I hired on with 20+ years ago). Somehow the history of the acquisitions gets massaged into “we” (the acquirer) did this or that. Well, not really. Might be easier to talk about like that, but merging and acquiring doesn’t include past history. IMO…