Blue Angels will switch to Super Hornets in late 2017

Beefy McGee

Beefy McGee

Well-Known Member
http://www.newsairshow.com/headline...ct-for-blue-angels-transition-to-super-hornet

"Monday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that the Boeing Company has been awarded the contract to begin the transition of the Blue Angels from the F/A-18 Hornet to the F/A-18 Super Hornet. The contract is as follows:

Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, is being awarded $12,053,076 for cost-plus-fixed-fee, delivery order 0002 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-16-G-0001) for non-recurring design and development engineering for an engineering change proposal for the "Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels) Super Hornet Conversion." Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri (82.8 percent); and El Segundo, California (17.2 percent), and is expected to be completed September 2017. Fiscal 2016 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $12,053,076 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

For the latest updates on the progress of this transition, we invite you to follow us on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In addition, we invite you to download our mobile app, available on both The App Store and Google Play."
 
bmwyouknowyouarenotthefirst1.jpg
 
I'd say the 12 mil is probably the total cost of taking 7 low lot E's and an F back to the depot to refit for the Blues mission.

And that sounds like cost of labor given how expensive Boeing makes their stuff these days.


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I read another article in the past few months about how they would go about switching to Super Hornets. The $12 mil is for the refit/reengineering to change current fleet model Super Hornets over to a configuration that would be better for Blue Angels duty. Apparently there are several high tech (classified electronic stuff?) systems that will be removed and some other weight reduction stuff to do.
 
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IIRC they take the radar and most of the other avionics out (weight without use). The other part is that they install a different feedback system into the artificial feel assembly of the control stick (fleet jets have essentially bungee cords, blues have springs i believe). Also, there are some mods for the smoke generator and landing gear doors I believe (they are rated 100 knots faster gear down than fleet aircraft so they can do the dirty loop/roll).
 
Single seat still? I always wondered what a rear seater in a blue angel f4 did, or if they even had one.
 
Don't they advertise that these demo aircraft can be returned to line status/configuration in 24-48 hrs? I guess the $12M is to just figure out what goes in the conex.

Also, with the stories of the services having to raid museums for parts, etc., why would they take 7 newer, deployable aircraft and send them to the demonstration team? This might be considered blasphemous, but why not use T45s? Didn't the TBirds use T38s?
 
Wardogg said:
Bert's going J model that year as well. *sigh*
Click to expand...

I doubt it. There are nowhere near enough J models in the fleet yet to give a hand me down to the Blues. It will happen eventually, but the Blue Angels will one of (if not the) last unit to get one. When they do it will be one of the older airframes that a fleet unit has already worn out.

The Blue Angles and HMX-1 (Marine One's squadron which I was a mechanic in) have a unique position in Naval aviation. Since these are not combat units but have a high profile non combat mission, we had an absolute priority on parts and other support, but are dead last in line for upgrades. HMX-1 was one of the last units to retire their CH-46s and transistion to the V-22.
 
USMCmech said:
I doubt it.
Click to expand...

That's what HQMC and the Blues are telling the fleet. Time will tell. The problem is they are running out of legacy aircrew to man it. So the choices are fill Bert with squids or give them a J. Either way Engineers and Navigators are getting pretty thin in the Corps.
 
Wardogg said:
That's what HQMC and the Blues are telling the fleet. Time will tell. The problem is they are running out of legacy aircrew to man it. So the choices are fill Bert with squids or give them a J. Either way Engineers and Navigators are getting pretty thin in the Corps.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected. I hadn't kept up to date with how many J models have been delivered.

I guess that they are starting to have the same issue with supporting the legacy hornets which is why they are switching now.
 
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