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Experts Consider Navy Fighter Gap

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By John M. Doyle

Extending the service life of F/A-18C/D Hornets to close a U.S. Navy fighter gap could still lead to a tactical air shortage because of the amount of time the Hornets will be out of service pending their upgrade, naval aviation analysts said July 21.

Ronald O’Rourke, a naval affairs expert with the Congressional Research Service (CRS), said the service life extension program for Hornets, aimed at allowing them to fly an additional 1,400 hours, is one way to solve the expected shortfall in carrier-based fighters. Officials have testified before Congress that the Navy and Marine Corps could be short between 125 and 243 aircraft by the mid- to late-2010s (Aerospace DAILY, May 21).

Other suggested remedies include speeding up F-35 Joint Strike Fighter procurement or acquiring more F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, which come equipped with more advanced technology, including active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. But O’Rourke told an audience at the Center for National Policy, a Washington think tank, that each solution comes with its own problems.

The Hornet upgrade could take an estimated 1,100-2,200 man-hours per aircraft, removing them from the active force and creating a different kind of gap, according to the president of the Association of Naval Aviation, Vice Adm. Robert Dunn (ret.). Speeding up F-35 production is unlikely to happen soon, Dunn added.

Congressional committees have yet to agree on how to acquire more Super Hornets. The Senate Armed Services Committee wants to buy nine more aircraft but won’t approve a multiyear procurement plan. The House Armed Services Committee took the opposite approach, while the defense subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee favors doing both.

O’Rourke, who stressed he was speaking only for himself and not CRS, noted that both armed services committees want a Congressional Budget Office study comparing the costs of extending the Hornets’ life to acquiring more Super Hornets.

Because of the high operational tempo in Iraq and Afghanistan, the F/A-18 C/Ds “are overutilized” and wearing out, which is causing “constant turbulence among the air wings” as air crews and service crews are transferred from squadron to squadron “to get the deploying ships up to where they should be,” Dunn said. Each of the 10 carrier air wings is expected to have four squadrons for a total of 40, but there are only 37 active squadrons, including 36 Navy and one Marine Corps.

O’Rourke suggested dividing any projected shortfall total by 60 or 70 — the number of aircraft in various stages of readiness it actually takes to field a squadron of 40 — to determine the fighter gap’s real effect on squadron deployment.

F-18 photo: U.S. Defense Dept.





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