Ready on arrival: Super Hornet joins the fleet

Sea Power, Jun 2002 by Peterson, Gordon I

"We really did pick three unique Americans to serve as program managers when we needed them most," Cook told Sea Power. "We insisted on having team players of the highest caliber who would put the success of the program above personal ambition and other considerations."

Cook and his associates at NAVAIR all were experienced fleet aviators before entering their specialized fields of aerospace engineering and aircraft development. "We had spent time flying at sea," Cook continued. "We knew the challenges, the loneliness, and the fears. We wanted to do our part to develop one of the best-engineered aircraft in the world-one that would raise performance to new levels of effectiveness and reliability."

Preliminary assessments by pilots and maintenance personnel of all four Super Hornet squadrons indicate that the aspirations and expectations of aeronautical engineers at Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and NAVAIR are being met during the early months of the F/A-- 18E/F's introduction to the fleet.

"I have 10 'up' aircraft on the roof right now," Devita said on the day following his night-tanker mission. He also reported extremely high mission-completion rates during the long months of training leading up to May's shipboard exercise.

Three months after receiving its "safefor-flight" certification in the Super Hornet in May 2001 (completing a successful transition within 100 days of returning from deployment), the squadron went through the first Strike Fighter Advanced Readiness Program (SFARP) with the F/A-1 8E. Its mission-- capable rate was outstanding, AIRPAC officials say, and the squadron was graded higher than any other Navy or Marine Corps squadron over the past three years.

Asked to compare the maintenance record of VFA-115's Super Hornets with the record of older F-14 Tomcat squadrons, Briggs said, "There is no comparison. We are light years ahead-- it is the easiest aircraft in the Navy to maintain."

AIRPAC officials confirmed Briggs' assessment. During the past six months, VFA-115's Super Hornets averaged 16.8 maintenance-man hours per flight hour (MMH/FH) to achieve a mission-- capable (MC) rate of 71.2 percent. Comparable statistics for another AIRPAC F/A-18C/D Hornet squadron were 21.7 MMH/FH and 63.2 percent MC rate. A Tomcat squadron, by contrast, required 80.6 MMH/FH to achieve a 61.5 percent MC rate. In short, maintenance crews in Tomcat squadrons must work roughly five times as hard to maintain their venerable but aging aircraft.

Navy officials say that the Super Hornet will advance the Hornet's legacy of superior reliability coupled with ease of repair-both of which qualities contribute significantly to higher readiness. Briggs attributed the aircraft's improved maintainability to several factors: (1) an onboard built-in test (BIT) system; (2) easily accessible components; (3) Boeing's supply support under a new performance-based logistics contract (referred to as the FIRST program); and (4) a new system of "paperless" maintenance manuals that are updated every three months on CD-ROM discs (Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals, or IETMs).