US Navy Super Hornet program manager Captain Don Gaddis has "never liked labels", he says, taking a careful position on Lockheed Martin's case that only the F-22 and F-35 are real "fifth generation" fighters and everything else is not - including Capt Gaddis' favorite jet. "I'm not attacking anybody," says Gaddis, "but a lot of people don't understand the Super Hornet's capability, and what I'm talking about is the capability of my platform." In a briefing at the US navy League's Sea Air Space show in Washington, Gaddis preferred to talk about the "next-generation" Super Hornet, to be fielded in a phased program based on today's Block 2 and the EA-18G Growler. The Hornet "flight plan" will yield an aircraft capable of IP-based communication with everything in sight and carrying a huge database of digital terrain information - so that it knows exactly where its radar is looking. Gaddis also disclosed a new addition to the Super Hornet's weaponry - a dedicated infrared search and track (IRST) sensor for the passive detection and tracking of airborne targets. But the Super Hornet already packs a top-end IR sensor, you say. The IRST, though, works in a different waveband that gives better range but lower-quality imagery. The plan is to start development in 2008 - Boeing has been delegated to pick a supplier - and field the IRST by 2013.
--Bill Sweetman
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