The Navy knows that 2030 isn’t as far, which is why it has asked the defense industry to start its engines in the race to replace the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and the EA-18G Growler.
Meetings with industry heavyweights Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman regarding the Navy’s next generation fighter have started, even though the F/A-XX strike fighter aircraft replacement program officially begins in 2015.
“The platform itself may or may not be a new one, nor focused on manned or unmanned,” one Navy official told U.S. Naval Institute News on Wednesday.
USNI News reported that the Navy is interested in an aircraft that would carry “high cost, very high performance weapons that could defeat the most dangerous projected future threats.” Technical Interchange Meetings (TIMs) with industry experts will explore whether attaining such a goal would simply require modifications to existing aircraft or entirely new engineering.
“So the F/A-XX may show up as something that is a Hornet-like aircraft with new weapons that can strike further and allow the Navy to fight its way into an AOR [Area of Responsibility] — maximizing the range of its weapon systems with linked fire control,” a Navy official told USNI News.
The Air Force is expected to work closely with the Navy on the project, as it too is planning its next-generation F-X tactical aircraft program to replace the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor and Boeing F-15C Eagle, USNI News reported.
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• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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