Boeing is touting that a future upgrade to the F-18 Super Hornet will make it able to track stealth aircraft by their heat source. According to Boeing’s manager of F/A-18 programs, Dan Gillian, this would be just one of many Super Hornet enhancements to keep the aircraft flying well into the 2040’s.

Check Out the Super Hornet!

“It’s a long-range, air-to-air counter-stealth sensor,” Gillian said of the technology during a briefing with reporters this week at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space conference in National Harbor, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C.

“Talk about complimentary capabilities — that’s something that Super Hornet brings to the carrier that nobody else has,” he added, in an apparent reference to the fifth-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter made competitor Lockheed Martin Corp.

“Super Hornets have been flying hard, and doing a lot of the country’s work, putting a lot of hours on the airplane that weren’t planned to be burned up,” Gillian said. On an aircraft carrier, roughly three out of four squadrons is a Super Hornet squadron, he said. – DoDBuzz.com

Boeing is currently producing two F-18 Super Hornets per month in their St Louis production facility and could increase production if needed. The Navy has request to purchase 24 Super Hornets in fiscal year 2017.

Looks like it is going to be tough getting rid of the old Hornet anytime soon. What do you think?

Featured image of F-18 Super Hornet by Boeing