Indian Navy Decision Further Seals Fate Of Super Hornet

The announced selection by the Indian Navy of a French fighter is another blow to the future of Boeing’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet assembly line in St. Louis. 

Boeing had already announced plans to wind down F/A-18E/F production in Missouri by 2025, but held out hope that potential orders in India could extend U.S. assembly operations by a year and keep the fighter in production on a new assembly line on the subcontinent. 

But India’s Navy announced the selection on July 14 of the Dassault Rafale-M to become its next carrier-based fighter. 

“So we’ll likely cease production [of the Super Hornet] around the 2025 time frame,” said Bernd Peters, Boeing’s vice president of business development for air dominance programs. 

The Indian air force still has a requirement to buy 114 new fighters under the Medium Range Fighter Aircraft program, but delays in the selection process could mean the Super Hornet is no longer available. 

Boeing is not yet commenting on whether the company could switch its bid for the Indian Air Force to the F-15EX, which remains in production for the U.S. Air Force. 

“I think it’s probably too early to comment on that yet,” Peters said. “It ultimately depends on how those requirements ultimately shake out. So it’s too soon to tell.”

Boeing still has 20 F/A-18E/Fs in production for the U.S. Navy, and negotiations are continuing to finalize the pricing for the last batch of twin-engine fighters, Peters said. 

The Super Hornet entered production in the late 1990s and Boeing delivered more than 600 to three operators: the U.S. Navy, the Royal Australian Air Force and the Kuwait Air Force. A close derivative, the EA-18G, is also in service for the Navy and Australia.

But the Boeing program suffered several near misses on potential contracts. Canada selected the F/A-18E/F as an interim solution in 2016, but a Boeing-initiated trade dispute against Bombardier in 2017 prompted Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to cancel the deal a year later. Germany also selected the F/A-18E/F and EA-18G to replace the Panavia Tornado, but canceled the deal last year and signed an order for 32 Lockheed Martin F-35As.