The US Navy is rebuilding around 550 F/A-18 (F-18) Super Hornets because it can't buy new ones after 2027, stretching each jet from 6,000 to 10,000 flight hours.
Boeing will build its last new Super Hornet in 2027, and the EA-18G Growler is already out of production. With the sixth-generation F/A-XX not expected until the 2030s, the Navy is sending most of its fleet through the Service Life Modification program. Each jet is taken apart, inspected for cracks, corrosion and metal fatigue, repaired, and upgraded to Block III, with a 10-by-19-inch touchscreen cockpit, a mission computer with about 17 times the processing power, a high-speed data link and a lower radar signature.
Now Naval Air Systems Command is looking for a second source to expand this rebuild work from fiscal year 2029, targeting up to 47 jets per year. We also look at where the work happens today (St. Louis, San Antonio and Fleet Readiness Center Southwest in San Diego), the Growler Block II upgrade with the Next Generation Jammer, and the new missiles coming to the Super Hornet, including the AIM-174B, AIM-260, AIM-424 Malice and the hypersonic Blackbeard.
Source: The Navy Channel
