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2016-07-10

The secret of Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet’s air dominance

Figuring out all about the technology behind the Hornet’s continued air dominance

The pride of Boeing, one of the largest global aircraft manufacturers, is the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet – a twin-engine, supersonic, all weather multirole fighter jet that is capable of landing and taking off from an aircraft carrier. Every Super Hornet has been delivered on cost and on schedule.

The US-based Boeing offers a suite of upgrades to the F/A-18 Super Hornet, including conformal fuel tanks, an enclosed weapons pod, an enhanced engine and a reduced radar signature. These capabilities, along with other advanced technologies, offer US and international customers a menu of next-generation capabilities to outpace future threats affordably.

‘See first, strike first’ systems: IRST and IRST21

The F/A-18 Super Hornet infrared search and track (IRST) system, consists of Lockheed Martin’s IRST21™ sensor, the GE Aviation FPU-13 Fuel Tank Assembly and the Meggitt Defense Industry Environmental Control unit.

The system demonstrated its production readiness through a series of extensive assessments and reviews, including flight tests.

“This ‘see first, strike first’ capability can be used in a variety of threat environments and is a game changer for our warfighters as we combat future adversaries,” said US Navy F/A-18 program manager Capt. Frank Morley.IRST is expected to deploy on the F/A-18 Super Hornet in 2017.

IRST21 is the next generation of Lockheed Martin’s legacy IRST sensor system, which accumulated more than 300,000 flight hours on the US Navy’s F-14 and international F-15 platforms. The long-range IRST21 sensor uses infrared search and track technology to detect, track and enable the Super Hornet to engage threats with air-to-air weapons.

“Lockheed Martin and Boeing have proven the maturity of the IRST21 sensor and the IRST system and are poised to get this advanced capability out to the fleet to support Navy carrier strike group objectives,” said Ken Fuhr, fixed wing program director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

In addition to detecting airborne threats, IRST significantly enhances multiple target resolution compared to radar, providing greater discrimination of threat formations at longer ranges. Data from the IRST21 sensor is fused with other on-board F/A-18 sensor data to provide maximum situational awareness to the warfighter.

“The IRST system is another example of how we continue to evolve Super Hornet capabilities to ensure it outpaces future adversaries,” said Tim Adrian, F/A-18 IRST program manager at Boeing.

With more than 35 years’ experience supporting the F/A-18 Hornet, Super Hornet and the E/A-18G Growler, Raytheon’s technology experts know that today’s multi-role aircraft require multi-role technology to maintain combat superiority.

From radars and electronic warfare to targeting pods and missiles, today’s Super Hornet derives most of its capability from revolutionary Raytheon technology, and legacy Hornet aircraft can achieve “Super Hornet-like” capabilities through a proven, cost-effective, easily managed upgrade process.

Raytheon technology is designed to operate in and adapt between air-to-air and air-to-ground missions during the same sortie by using the world’s most advanced Airborne Electronically Scanned Array (AESA), the APG-79 radar.

Self-protection is provided by today’s state-of-the-art digital radar warning receiver—the ALR-67(V)3—and the combat-proven ALE-50 towed decoy. For targeting and strike capabilities, Raytheon’s Advanced Targeting Forward-looking Infrared (ATFLIR) pod, and series of munitions provide a full complement of mission solutions.

Combat-proven radar systems

Raytheon provides APG-79 AESA radar systems for Super Hornets.

This combat-proven system substantially increases the power of the Super Hornet, making it less vulnerable than ever before. With its active electronic beam scanning — which allows the radar beam to be steered at nearly the speed of light — the APG-79 optimizes situational awareness and provides superior air-to-air and air-to-surface capability. Further, because of its modular design, the APG-79 radar easily accommodates new technology updates as they become available.

Specifically designed for the Hornet upgrade market, Raytheon’s APG-79(V)X AESA radar slips easily into the F/A-18 C/D nose cone. The simple, non-disruptive retrofit can be performed in the field and takes less than an hour to complete. The radar upgrade, along with additional advanced capabilities such as the AN/ALR-67(V)3 Radar Warning Receiver (see additional details below), helps countries extend the lives of their existing aircraft in a time of tighter budgets, ensuring combat relevancy for the F/A-18 C/D platform for years to come.

Other elements in the F/A-18’s air dominance equation

Raytheon’s AN/ASQ-228 Advanced Targeting Forward-looking Infrared (ATFLIR) pod is the only targeting pod fully integrated and certified for aircraft carrier operations and has been supporting fleet deployments since 2002.

The AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR features state-of-the-art mid-wave infrared targeting and navigation FLIRs, an electro-optical sensor, a laser rangefinder and target designator and a laser spot tracker. Until now, laser tracking and infrared targeting and navigation functions on F/A-18 aircraft involved three pods. The streamlined ATFLIR integrates the three capabilities into a single compact pod, freeing an air-to-air weapon station for other mission requirements.

Raytheon’s AN/ALR-67(V)3 Radar Warning Receiver (RWR), a sophisticated countermeasures receiving set, provides superior situational awareness during long-range detection.

With the changes in today’s battlespace and the increasing sophistication of electronic warfare systems has produced task-saturated legacy RWR systems. The AN/ALR-67(V)3 operates successfully in high density electromagnetic environments because the channelised receiver architecture allows successful detection of emitters in high pulse density, as well as interception of faint distant signals despite interference.

The company’s combat-proven AN/ALE-50 Towed Decoy System provides protection from surface-to-air and air-to-air missile attacks.

Designed for use on multiple US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps aircraft, the ALE-50 is recognised for its unparalleled protection. The level of security this system provides makes the ALE-50 one of the most important end-game electronic countermeasures available today. More than 27,000 decoys have been delivered around the world.

The Super Hornet also carries Raytheon’s Miniature Airborne Global Positioning System Receiver (MAGR-2000). Using an open systems architecture, the receiver provides improved position, velocity and time performance reporting, resulting in a more accurate weapon delivery.

Raytheon is now delivering the SHAred Reconnaissance Pod (SHARP) for the F/A-18. SHARP features a medium-altitude electro-optic and infrared sensor with manual or automatic modes of operation, with a spiral insertion of high-altitude EO/IR performance planned.

Super strike capability

With eight Raytheon weapon systems supporting the Hornet, the aircraft has evolved into one of the most lethal and effective platforms across the full mission spectrum: air superiority, fighter escort, reconnaissance, close air support, air defense suppression and day/night precision strike.

Raytheon weapon systems include:

The AGM-65 Maverick missile is effective against moving and armored targets. Providing precision strike capability with minimum collateral damage, the AGM-65 has achieved a 90 percent hit rate in combat operations.

The AIM-7 Sparrow Missile is a medium-range, all-weather, all-aspect, semi-active guided missile used in multiple roles by multiple services. Performance improvements in this combat-proven system include look-down, shoot-down in heavy clutter environments and much lower altitude engagement. Additionally, it is more time immune to the ever challenging countermeasures threat.

The AIM-9M Sidewinder missile is a cost-effective, infrared-tracking, short-range, air-to-air missile adaptable to multiple applications. The AIM-9M Sidewinder delivers efficient identification of targets against ground clutter; successful tracking against low-signal level targets; and has a reduced-smoke rocket motor.

The AIM-9X Sidewinder missile has exceptional target acquisition in all forms of background clutter with improved maximum and minimum range. AIM-9X is a launch and leave, air combat missile that uses passive infrared (IR) energy for acquisition and tracking, which can be employed in near beyond visual range (NBVR) and within visual range (WVR) arenas.

The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) offers true multi-shot, beyond visual range “launch and leave” capability, which enhances survivability. AMRAAM packs unprecedented performance into a lightweight, cost-effective package. Its operational reliability is measured in thousands of hours - an order of magnitude improvement against which other systems can’t compare.

The High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) provides air-to-surface suppression and destruction of air-to-air missile radars, early warning radars, and radar-directed air defense artillery systems from long standoff ranges. Its multiple operational modes provides maximum flexibility in suppressing and destroying enemy air defense systems.

Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) is a family of affordable, highly lethal weapons revolutionizing strike warfare. This new generation glide weapon ensures warfighter survivability by enabling precision air strike launches from well beyond the range of most enemy air defenses. JSOW variants can engage and destroy virtually the entire target set for our forces today over a range of threat environments.

Paveway™ Laser Guided Bomb engages targets with precision accuracy and minimal collateral damage. The Paveway™ series of laser guided bombs (LGB) has truly revolutionised tactical air-to-ground warfare. These semi-active laser-guided munitions, which home on reflected laser energy directed on the target, not only drastically reduce the number of munitions required to destroy a target, but also feature accuracy, reliability and cost-effectiveness previously unattainable with conventional weapons.

The Enhanced Paveway™-II (EP-II) Dual Mode (Laser and GPS) Guided Bomb is the world standard for low-cost, highly reliable, dual-mode, precision guided bombs with all-weather capability. The EP-II dual-mode guidance utilizes GPS for all weather conditions and laser for precision.

When used together, these combat-proven air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons equip the Super Hornet with tremendous firepower and extremely reliable precision strike capability.

Reference text/photo:

www. boeing.com

www.lockheedmartin.com

www.raytheon.com

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