Although the superhornet is named as if it is a variant of Hornet. Infact it has a new Wing, new fuselage and new empennage making it essentially a new aircraft.
Although it has a better radar, and electronic suite, it does not seem to offer any significant improvements in flight performance.
Hornet pilots have often commented that they outran and out-flew the superhornet.
also, its combat ceiling is substantially lower, and its transonic drag rise is very high. An F/A-18E/F in maximum afterburner thrust cannot exceed Mach 1.0 in level flight below 10,000 feet even when it is in the clean configuration
The USN should have just upgraded the normal hornets and deployed some more F-14D and upgrade them, that should have solved the USN requirements to a lot of extent.
I dont think F-18E/F can replace EA-6B. neither it has the range nor payload capability. it cant take Electronic pods on external points as it will decrease the range considerably and to acheive the same range as a EA-6B it will have to carry external pods.
These are just my views, what do you guys feel. is F-18E/F better than F-18C/D
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February 26, 2006 at 4:21 am