International Super Hornet

Boeing Reveals Details Of International F-18

a Super Hornet fitted with two CFTs and a belly-mounted conventional, external fuel tank, the aircraft would have the same combat radius that now only can be achieved with three external tanks.

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replacement of the F-18’s wing and fuselage pylons and hardpoints with Enclosed Weapons Pods (EWPs), each of them able to host four AIM-120 missiles, a 2,000-lb. bomb or two 500-lb.-class weapons.

Boeing says that even if each EWP has a targeted empty weight of 370 kg (815 lb.), this “addition” is more than compensated for by elimination of pylons and rails and the better resulting aerodynamics, as well as reduced radar cross section

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Boeing has yet to detail its estimates of how much better a Super Hornet fitted with an enhanced-performance engine variant of the General Electric F414, Transonic Flight Quality Improvement wing package, CFTs and EWPs would perform. But the company says that acceleration from level cruise speed to a supersonic Mach 1.3-Mach 1.5 will be reduced, depending on aircraft configuration and altitude, by 2-3.5 times compared with a standard Super Hornet. During a typical combat air patrol mission at altitudes around 40,000 ft., the time needed to accelerate from patrol to combat supersonic speed is to be reduced by 2-3 times.

Who is this aimed at now that India is out of the picture?

Continuing sales to Australia?
Do they really think they have a shot in Japan?
UAE is going Rafale for sure right?
Will Brazil ever order anything?

I wonder how much of this would interest the USN? The CFTs for sure look to be useful . . .