The Super Hornet — affectionately known as the ‘Rhino’ — is a magnificent all-rounder for the US Navy, and is set to remain so into the 2040s.
FORCE REPORT | US NAVY CARRIER AIR POWER
THE TYPICAL CARRIER Air Wing (CVW) fields up to four squadrons of Super Hornets with a mix of single-seat E-models and two-seat Fs. They fulfill a raft of duties to meet both the air-to-air and air-to-ground needs of the fleet, and act as the CVW’s organic tanker aircraft. The only real difference in mission sets for the two variants concerns the forward air controller — airborne (FAC-A) role, which is the sole domain of the F/A-18F due to its complexity.
This year the Boeing fighter notched up its first air-to-air ‘kill’, when on June 18 LCDR Michael ‘Mob’ Tremel of VFA-87 ‘Golden Warriors’ downed a Syrian Su-22M-4 ‘Fitter’ with an AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Airto- Air Missile). The shootdown marked the Navy’s first aerial victory since the opening day of Operation ‘Desert Storm’, January 17, 1991, when LCDR Mark Fox and LT Nick Mongillo of VFA-81 ‘Sunliners’ each shot down an Iraqi MiG-21.
The Super Hornet first flew in November 1995. Deliveries to Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) VFA-122 began in September 1…
