Commander Naval Air Forces wants more F/A-18s

[talkitron]

The US Navy obsession with buying tons more Super Hornets makes Canada's interest in a handful of Super Hornets look quaint. I don't know why the Navy needs to wait until 2021 to deploy a single F-35C squadron on a carrier.

[SpudmanWP]

Deploying to a carrier is a lot more complex than deploying to an airfield. At sea you can't bring in a bunch of LM techs or increase your parts & support footprint without affecting the rest of the ship. They need to be completely squared away before going to sea.

[spazsinbad]

SOME MORE GRIST FOR THE Super Hornet Price MILL... $677 million divided by 14 say (yes total Es & Fs) equals? ........?

Boeing to manufacture additional F/A-18s for U.S. Navy
14 Sep 2017 Stephen Carlson

"Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Boeing Co. has received a $676.6 million modification to an existing contract for the production of F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter aircraft for the U.S. Navy.

The modification, announced Wednesday by the Department of Defense, provides for the manufacture of six lot 41 F/A-18E and eight F/A-18F fighter jets. The production run is expected to be completed by February 2019...."

Source: http://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2017/09 ... 505406579/

[sunstersun]

ugh, just order F35C's faster.



although it probably is important that boeing's production lines stay open in order to compete for the f/a-xx

[sprstdlyscottsmn]

SOME MORE GRIST FOR THE Super Hornet Price MILL... $677 million divided by 14 say (yes total Es & Fs) equals? ........?

~$48M each, not much at all. The joy of buying "replacements" for something you already operate is that you don't need all the support equipment.

[marauder2048]

SOME MORE GRIST FOR THE Super Hornet Price MILL... $677 million divided by 14 say (yes total Es & Fs) equals? ........?

~$48M each, not much at all. The joy of buying "replacements" for something you already operate is that you don't need all the support equipment.

$48M is just airframe & ancillaries.

[sprstdlyscottsmn]

No engines or radar or EW equipment etc you mean?

[SpudmanWP]

Do they award the Engines separately like they do for the F-35?

[marauder2048]

No engines or radar or EW equipment etc you mean?

There's typically some EW equipment like the RWR and sometimes IDECM.

[playloud]

Wasn't that a modification to an existing contract? Are all those jets net-new, or are they adding... let's say 5 jets to an existing order?

[SpudmanWP]

It's new jets being added on to an existing multi-year contract.

[marauder2048]

Do they award the Engines separately like they do for the F-35?

Historically, for the SuperBug, everything from the engines to the towed decoys
was awarded under separate contracts.

AFAIK, the F-35 is just two contracts: aircraft and engines.

[maus92]

F414 engines are ~3.9M each for FY17, so add 8M for the engines. The radar and most other electronics are CFE/E (furnished by the contractor, i.e. Boeing from subcontractors) for the Super Hornet, so add ~3M for GFE/E (furnished by the Navy from other contracts.) So that's $48.2M for the airframes and most electronics; $8M for engines; and $3M for misc electronics systems, for ~$60M URF.

FY17 Super Hornet buys this year had no advance procurement contract; there was an earlier contract let this year that had 7 Growlers and 5 -Es. This new purchase leverages off the earlier contract, but there is no MYP in place. The earlier purchase are Lot 40 jets using FY16 funding, this new purchase will be Lot 41 jets using FY17 funds.

[neurotech]

SOME MORE GRIST FOR THE Super Hornet Price MILL... $677 million divided by 14 say (yes total Es & Fs) equals? ........?

~$48M each, not much at all. The joy of buying "replacements" for something you already operate is that you don't need all the support equipment.

The $48M per aircraft doesn't include F414 engines (2x $5.4m), radar is $6.2m, plus avionics and accessories that are basically required to get the jet to flyaway. Each Rhino costs $78m flyaway (FY17). The recent FY16/FY17/FY18 purchases include $15m each for engineering support, but no additional ground equipment or initial spares. The 2 FY17 jets were OCO funded due to combat related losses.

F414 engines are ~3.9M each for FY17, so add 8M for the engines. The radar and most other electronics are CFE/E (furnished by the contractor, i.e. Boeing from subcontractors) for the Super Hornet, so add ~3M for GFE/E (furnished by the Navy from other contracts.) So that's $48.2M for the airframes and most electronics; $8M for engines; and $3M for misc systems, for ~$60M URF.

$5.4m per F414 engine.

$14.1m for "ancillary equipment such as: Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS), Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures (IDECM)/Radio Frequency Counter Measures (RFCM) ALQ-214 EFC, ALR-67, and External Fuel Tank."

[marauder2048]

for ~$60M URF.
FY17 Super Hornet buys this year

But somebody has always told us to use the Gross/Weapon System Unit Cost which for the FY17 birds is $94.3 million.