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U.S. Navy to deploy Super Hornet by 2003

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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Navy's new F-18E/F attack jet has passed flight tests and will be ready for deployment in two years, officials said.

Navy officials said the carrier jet received the best possible grades in six months of operational evaluation tests at China Lake, California. The service plans to spend $45 billion to buy 548 of the upgraded version of older F-18s over the next decade.

Final approval for full-scale production of the Super Hornet could be approved later this year by Defense Secretary William Cohen and Congress. "We have been encouraged by what we have seen so far," said Navy Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman.

Critics have said the Super Hornet is unnecessary as the Pentagon is developing both the Air Force's F-22 stealth fighter and the Joint Strike Fighter to be shared by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The F-18E/F is designed to replace the current F-18C and aging F-14 attack jets and will include longer range, more advanced weaponry and better defense against enemy ground fire and air threats.

But navy officials said the Super Hornet is a priority and the first squadron is to be deployed on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in 2002.

"The Super Hornet is the cornerstone of future naval aviation," Adm. Jay Johnson, the navy's chief of operations, said. "The superb performance demonstrated throughout its comprehensive operational evaluation was just what we expected and confirms why we can't wait to get it in the fleet."

The Pentagon has asked Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp., to consider cooperating on the JSF warplane project. Pentagon officials said that cooperating on the project would prevent a potential crisis if one company were to lose out to the other on the contract for the Joint Strike Fighter program.

The $200 billion contract, to be awarded next year, could be the Pentagon's biggest ever. Boeing and Lockheed Martin are competing for the contract to build as many as 3,000 of the JSFs for the U.S, Britain and at least nine other countries.

Pentagon officials distributed a questionaire to the companies late last month, to assess the optimal method to implement a "teaming" approach for the development of the JSF.

The Washington Post said two panels had been appointed to review the JSF program.

Thursday, February 17, 2000


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