(Luft) Lockheed Martin F-35 - Lightning II

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The U.S. Navy Struggles to Keep Hornets Flying While the F-35 Stalls

​The F-35 was supposed to be here by now​.

Faced with delays in the adoption of the F-35, the U.S. Navy is trying to keep F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet fighters flying until replacements arrive. According to Military Times, the service is stretching the lifespan of existing planes, keeping them in the air far longer than originally planned.

The U.S. Navy's F/A-18C Hornets comprise half of the fighter force on a typical Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. These older Hornets, known as "legacy Hornets" to differentiate them from the Super Hornet, were only meant to fly an average 6,000 hours.

Generally speaking, this works out to about 20 years of peacetime flying. The problem? Most of the "legacy Hornets" were bought in the 1980s, making them roughly 30 years old. The period from 1991 to 2015 also have seen a higher operating tempo than expected, with an nearly continuous stream of wars, peacekeeping missions, no-fly zones, and punitive actions requiring air power.

The Navy plans to replace legacy Hornets with the carrier version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter—a process that should have started three years ago. The Navy was originally supposed to declare the F-35C ready for combat in 2012.

Now, the last of the legacy Hornets is expected to be retired in 2022, and even that date could be pushed back by delays in the F-35 program (and government funding) staying on track.

As a result, the Navy is planning on extending the service lives of legacy Hornets to 10,000 hours. Although build for 6,000 hours, the airframes have been tested out to 10,000. Beyond that, safety becomes a real issue.

The other half of a carrier's fighter force are the newer F/A-18E/F Super Hornets. Super Hornets were also originally rated for 6,000 flying hours and will also be increased to 10,000 hours. The Super Hornet will not be replaced by the F-35 but rather so-called "sixth generation" fighter, the F/A-XX future fighter, to differentiate it from the 5th generation F-35. That won't happen until the 2040s, but the Super Hornets are already being flown longer and harder as older Hornets spend more time in repair depots.

Das ist besonders beachtenswert weil man das jetzt inzwischen überall hört: dass die Super Hornet eben nicht durch die F-35C ersetzt wird sondern paralell weiter betrieben wird. Damit ist die Idee von phantom von einer Einheits-Luftwaffe mit F-35 ohne Legacy Muster endgültig beerdigt.

In allen Ländern welche F-35 nutzen also das gleiche: man wird die F-35 und Legacy Muster über Jahrzehnte paralell gleichzeitig benutzen, also die Typenvielfalt damit erhöhen statt sie zu senken.