THE US NAVY hopes to replace six squadrons of aging Northrop Grumman A-6E attack aircraft and F-14 fighters with McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet strike aircraft over the next five years under a $1 billion programme designed to counter a shortfall of tactical naval aircraft.
According to Rear Adm. Brent Bennitt, the USN's air-in warfare director, the F-18 "buy-back" programme involves using F-18s to replace two A-6E squadrons and four F-14 squadrons, beginning in fiscal year 1997.
He says that the USN needs a total of 30 F-18 squadrons organised in ten air wings, each with three squadrons.
The additional squadrons are needed because the USN over the last five years cut too deeply into its carrier-based air wing forces. The USN wants to maintain 50 strike aircraft on each aircraft carrier: 36 F-18s and 14 F-14 Tomcats.
Although the F-18 will be the USN's tactical workhorse, Bennitt says, that the stealthy Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) aircraft is needed to attack, strongly defended, critical targets early in a future conflict. The F-18 complement would be initially fielded in 2010, with the USN buying 300 aircraft. Each JAST squadron would have 14 of the stealth strike aircraft.
The aging Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler electronic-warfare aircraft must also be replaced, and McDonnell Douglas says that a variant of the F-18E/F is viable for that job. An EA-6B upgrade and structural improvements to increase the Prowler's service life are also being studied.
Source: Flight International
