More Super Hornets in the pipeline?
by Tim Logan, St. Louis Post Dispatch
click here for original article
One of the St. Louis area’s biggest assembly lines may be getting a new lease on life.
The Navy is considering buying 36 more F/A-18 Super Hornets, according to a notice posted this month on a federal procurement website. That move would sustain 5,000 jobs building the fighter jets at Boeing Co. in Hazelwood and suppliers around the St. Louis area for at least an additional 18 months.
The Super Hornet is the Navy’s premier fighter jet, but it’s nearing the end of its production line as the service begins to shift over to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The Navy’s last order is set to be made in the current fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, 2014, with the last plane due for delivery in 2016.
But amid Pentagon budget cuts and delays to the F-35 program, Boeing has been pitching the Super Hornet as a cheaper and more reliable alternative. And it appears the Navy may be listening.
Earlier this month, the Naval Air Services Command quietly posted a “pre-solicitation” notice on a federal contracting website, declaring its intent to “solicit and negotiate” a fixed-price contract for 36 more F/A-18 Super Hornets and E/A-18 Growlers. At $55 million per plane, the contract would cost roughly $2 billion.
But it’s far from a done deal. The Pentagon’s 2015 budget, which will detail its purchasing plans, isn’t due out until February and must then move through Congress, said Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He saw the notice as a way for the Navy to keep its options open.
“This notice coming out now just means that this is something under consideration,” he said. “It’s an indication that the Navy is at least considering the possibility of buying more Super Hornets.”
Boeing took a similar stance, calling the notice “a formality to keep the door open to potential future buys.” A Navy spokeswoman did not reply to written questions Tuesday.
Boeing’s Hazelwood-based Defense, Space and Security division has a lot riding on the final decision.
The F/A-18 is the most-advanced military jet Boeing assembles, and it supports thousands of jobs both in manufacturing lines and elsewhere in the company.
Prolonging the Navy contract by even a year would also increase the likelihood of landing foreign orders — such as Brazil’s plan to purchase a fighter jet — that could extend production event further. And some defense experts warn against letting the Super Hornet line go dark and focusing all U.S. fighter jet production in one program with the Joint Strike Fighter.
“It’s not an easy decision,” Harrison said. “And it’s going to have long-lasting implications.”
The Navy is not the only air fleet that’s deciding what to buy.
The South Korean Air Force also continues to weigh a fighter jet purchase that it postponed last month. The company’s Defense Ministry had planned to spend $8 billion buying 60 Boeing-built F-15s, which were far cheaper than the F-35. But it put off the deal at the last minute over concerns that the older jets wouldn’t have the capabilities Korea needs to counter North Korea. Now the country is reported to be considering splitting its purchase across several planes.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, a Boeing executive said this week that his company would be open to that.
“If it turns out a split of 40 F-15s and 20 F-35s is the right answer, then, of course, we will want to participate in that,” James Armington, vice president for East Asia-Pacific business development at Boeing’s defense unit, told Bloomberg. “Whatever the requirement is determined to be, whatever the need is determined to be, we definitely want to participate.”
