The U.S. Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornet Is A 1970s Design — And The Navy Is Keeping It Flying into The 2030s

The U.S. Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornet Is A 1970s Design — And The Navy Is Keeping It Flying into The 2030s

The U.S. Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornet Service Life Extension Program has extended the aircraft from 6,000 flight hours all the way to 10,000 — buying years of additional service life for a 1970s McDonnell Douglas-Northrop design while the Navy waits for the F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter. The Super Hornet has been retrofitted with conformal fuel tanks designed to reduce radar signature, rounded external weapons pods, Magic Carpet glide-slope land…