PAUL LEWIS / WASHINGTON DC
Super Hornet achieves sortie completion rate of nearly 98% in first deployment but use of ATFLIR targeting pods delayed
The US Navy has started to release details of the first operational deployment of the Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet, during which the aircraft dropped 209,000kg (460,000lb) of ordnance on Afghanistan and Iraq, marking the fighter's combat debut. The lack of production-standard Raytheon AAQ-228 ATFLIRs, however, prevented the targeting pod being used until late in the deployment.
VFA-115 became the first F/A-18E squadron to be deployed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in July last year and the deployment was extended by three months to May because of the Iraq war. The squadron's 12 single-seat fighters clocked up 5,400h, completed 2,463 arrestor landings and generated a sortie completion rate of nearly 98% without loss.
"The biggest unknown was that the aircraft had never been on a deployment before, but in the end it did very well. Our maintenance man hour per flight hour finished out in the low teens. The VF-31 [Grumman] F-14D squadron on the carrier by comparison was six times that rate," says Cdr Jeff Penfield, commanding officer VFA-115.
A total of 159,000kg of ordnance was dropped during the Iraq conflict, including the first-ever release of four 900kg JDAMGPS-satellite guided bombs from a single F/A-18E. Other munitions used included laser guided 450kg and general purpose 225kg and 450kg bombs, along with a limited number of Raytheon AGM-154 Joint Stand-off Weapons.
VFA-115 relied on the F/A-18C/D Lockheed Martin AAQ-38 targeting pod to designate targets, as the three ATFLIRs deployed were pre-production systems and less than reliable. "Their performance got better and the reliability issues tended to get smaller as production parts were added," says Penfield. The first operational ATFLIR was used later in April when four F/A-18E/Fs flew on to the USS Abraham Lincoln ahead of its relief carrier USS Nimitz reaching the Gulf. The USS Nimitz is the first carrier to be deployed with F/A-18E andF/A-18F squadrons in place of two F-14 units.
Four of VFA-115's aircraft were configured as tankers, equipped with a centreline buddy-buddy hose unit and up four underwing tanks capable of holding up to 13,620kg of fuel. "As we got into the war, organic tanking became harder to get and the number of tanker missions we flew increased from 15-20% to 50%," says Penfield.
Source: Flight International
