Boeing Completes Production of 1st Australian Super Hornet

Boe­ing Com­pletes Pro­duc­tion of 1st Aus­tralian Super Hor­net with Pro­vi­sions for Future Elec­tron­ic Attack Capa­bil­i­ty
ST. LOUIS — Boe­ing [NYSE: BA] announced today that it has com­plet­ed pro­duc­tion of the first Roy­al Aus­tralian Air Force (RAAF) F/A‑18F Super Hor­net that has the capa­bil­i­ty to be con­vert­ed into an elec­tron­ic attack air­craft.

F/A‑18F Super Hor­net Source: Boe­ing Click to enlarge

Boe­ing is pre-wiring the RAAF’s sec­ond lot of 12 Super Hor­nets for poten­tial elec­tron­ic attack capa­bil­i­ty con­ver­sion dur­ing pro­duc­tion at the company’s facil­i­ties in St. Louis. 

“Incor­po­rat­ing the abil­i­ty to intro­duce an elec­tron­ic attack capa­bil­i­ty on 12 RAAF Super Hor­nets as they are pro­duced in St. Louis pro­vides max­i­mum flex­i­bil­i­ty for our Air Force in the future,” said RAAF Group Capt. Steve Rober­ton, Offi­cer Com­mand­ing 82 Wing, which includes Super Hor­net and F‑111 air­craft. “Ulti­mate­ly, if a deci­sion to incor­po­rate an elec­tron­ic attack option is pur­sued, it will fur­ther expand the broad capa­bil­i­ty of an already for­mi­da­ble Super Hor­net weapon system.” 

The Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment announced in March 2007 that it would acquire 24 of the advanced Block II ver­sions of the Super Hor­net, all of which are equipped with the Raytheon-built APG-79 Active Elec­tron­i­cal­ly Scanned Array (AESA) radar. Eleven Super Hor­nets are now oper­at­ing at RAAF Base Amber­ley in Queens­land. All 11 air­craft were deliv­ered ahead of sched­ule and on bud­get. Boe­ing will deliv­er Australia’s 24th Super Hor­net in 2011. 

“Besides giv­ing the RAAF the poten­tial of intro­duc­ing elec­tron­ic attack capa­bil­i­ty in the future, pro­duc­ing these 12 air­craft with this con­fig­u­ra­tion from the out­set also reduces cost when com­pared with retro­fitting at a lat­er date,” said Car­olyn Nichols, Aus­tralian Super Hor­net pro­gram man­ag­er for Boeing. 

The Boe­ing Super Hor­net is a mul­ti­role air­craft, able to per­form vir­tu­al­ly every mis­sion in the tac­ti­cal spec­trum, includ­ing air supe­ri­or­i­ty, day/night strike with pre­ci­sion-guid­ed weapons, fight­er escort, close air sup­port, sup­pres­sion of ene­my air defens­es, mar­itime strike, recon­nais­sance, for­ward air con­trol and tanker mis­sions. Boe­ing has deliv­ered more than 430 F/A‑18E/Fs to the U.S. Navy. Every Super Hor­net pro­duced has been deliv­ered on or ahead of sched­ule and on budget. 

A unit of The Boe­ing Com­pa­ny, Boe­ing Defense, Space & Secu­ri­ty is one of the world’s largest defense, space and secu­ri­ty busi­ness­es spe­cial­iz­ing in inno­v­a­tive and capa­bil­i­ties-dri­ven cus­tomer solu­tions, and the world’s largest and most ver­sa­tile man­u­fac­tur­er of mil­i­tary air­craft. Head­quar­tered in St. Louis, Boe­ing Defense, Space & Secu­ri­ty is a $34 bil­lion busi­ness with 68,000 employ­ees worldwide. 

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Contact: 

Philip Carder
F/A‑18 Com­mu­ni­ca­tions
Boe­ing Defense, Space & Secu­ri­ty
+1 314–234-6516
philip.b.carder@boeing.com

Mary Ann Brett
Inter­na­tion­al Com­mu­ni­ca­tions
Boe­ing Defense, Space & Secu­ri­ty
+1 314–234-7111
mary.a.brett@boeing.com

James Bak­er
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Direc­tor
Boe­ing Defence Aus­tralia
+61–7‑3306–3411
james.m.baker9@boeing.com

Source:
Boeing 

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