This reformist movement is dubbed the Fighter Mafia in the media.īefore their respective deaths, leading reformist members like Pierre Sprey, John Boyd, and Thomas P. Former members of a joint Air Force and civilian defense analyst group who helped develop the F-15 and F-16 back in the 60s still held considerable sway with the media for years after the project. But in 2023, that line of thinking is more outdated than 8-track tapes.Įven so, there are still elements within the orbit of the Pentagon's inner circle who have a vested interest in legacy airframes taking precedence over newer vehicles. The notion that simplicity and world-class maneuverability are the only factors in who wins a dogfight may have been sound in the late 1960s. Unfortunately, the F/A-18 is bound to fall into the latter category.Įven as countermeasures to stealth aircraft grow more robust, the difference between an airframe with integrated radar stealth and those which don't could very well be the difference between life and death in future wars, more or less guaranteed to pop off in the next 20 years. These two camps will be the all-powerful stealth fighters and non-stealthy cannon fodder. and an "equally" matched adversary like China, jet fighters are bound to be classed in two separate camps. The truth of the matter is the battlefields of modern conflicts are about to look dramatically different from what they've looked like in the last 40 years. You see, there's a stark divide between those who wholeheartedly accept gen-V stealth fighters and those who write them off as overly-expensive wastes of taxpayer money. A connection that might lead to some dubious assumptions about its capabilities. In a way, this has led the Super Hornet to have a very special place in the hearts of aviation fans. Especially after the F-14 Tomcat's retirement in 2006, the Super Hornet carried the burden alone for the Navy until the F-35C arrived on the scene in February 2019. Navy's aerial fleet defense is nothing short of an understatement. To say the Super Hornet formed the backbone of the U.S. The first Navy production order for what was initially dubbed the Hornet II was placed in 1992 and flew for the first time in November 1995. What was needed was a slightly enlarged F-18 airframe to accommodate a larger fuel load and better engines. But there was a problem, the standard Hornet's combat radius wasn't all that impressive. In most regards, the standard F-18 was one of the most advanced, capable, and dependable carrier-based jet fighters of the late 20th century. As the spiritual successor to the Northrop YF-17 Cobra built to compete with the F-16, the F-18 tuned this airframe from a failure into a big win for McDonnell-Douglas. Regarding technological advancement of carrier-based fighter jets, the McDonnell Douglas F-18 Hornet and F/A-18 Super Hornet were more evolutionary than revolutionary, unlike the swing-wing sci-fi machine that was the F-14. But the notion the F-35 is a bad airplane and that the Super Hornet would be better long-term is simply asinine. That won't stop a select group of people from claiming the Navy would have been better off sticking with legacy aircraft like the Hornet. Of course, the Super Hornet's slightly less spicy older brothers, the "regular" Hornets, have already been retired from U.S. Oh, jeez, we wonder how these people will react to the F/A-18 Super Hornet going dodo.
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