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August 31, 2018
GOSPORT
After years of waiting, Blue Angels set for ‘Super’ upgrade By Ben Werner https://news.usni.org
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he world-famous U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, is set for a major change following an Aug. 13 $17 million contract award. Boeing was awarded the contract to retrofit nine Block 1 F/A-18E Super Hornets and two Block 1 F/A-18F Super Hornets for the team from the current crop of F/A-18C/D fighters. Typically the squadron has a total of 11 fighters, according to information from the Navy. The work will convert the operational Super Hornets with the equipment and tweaks required for aircraft to be used by the demonstration team. Among the differences between the fighters flown by the Blue Angels and those deployed to the fleet are Blue Angels F/A-18s have their nose cannons removed and replaced with smoke-oil tanks. Old paint is stripped off and the fighters are painted in the distinct blue and gold livery. A civilian instrumentation landing system is put in each plane and each cockpit has a spring installed on the stick to maintain a constant
seven pounds of forward pressure to enable improved formation and inverted flying. “Otherwise, the aircraft that the squadron flies are the same as those in the fleet,” according to the Blue Angels fact sheet. “Each Blue Angel aircraft is capable of being returned to combat duty aboard an aircraft carrier within 72 hours.” The upgrades needed to turn a ready-for-combat duty Super Hornet into an elite flight demonstration aircraft, though, are not so simple as plugging in some extra components, USNI News understands. F/A-18 E/F versions do not
A US Navy (USN) F/A-18F Super Hornet, Strike Fighter Squadron 41 (VFA-41), Black Aces, Naval Air Station (NAS) Lemoore, California (CA), conducts a mission over the Persian Gulf. The Hornet is armed with an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile on the wingtip and an AGM-65 Maverick missile on the pylon. Tucked under the intake is an AAQ-14 LANTIRN (Low-Altitude Navigation and Targeting InfraRed for Night) pod. Also under the fuselage, a 370-gallon External Fuel Tank. File photo by Tech Sgt. Rob Tabor
have a lot of extra space, so finding a place for the smoke system has proved to be a daunting task. The legacy smoke system did not quite fit into a Super Hornet nose. In 2016, under a $12 million engineering and design contract, Navy and Boeing engineers started working on solving this issue and others related to reconfiguring the cockpit and installing inverted flight systems, according to Boeing. The Blue Angels’ Super Hornets will be retrofitted at Boeing’s St. Louis facility and are expected to be completed by December 2021, according to the Department of Defense con-
tract announcement. This will be the 11th airframe change for the demonstration team since its founding in 1946. The team transitioned to the F/A-18A/B model on the Blue Angel’s 40th anniversary in 1986 from the Douglas A-4F Skyhawk II. The following is the full Department of Defense contract announcement: The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded $17,002,107 for firmfixed-price delivery order N0001918F2654 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-
16-G-0001). This order is for the retrofit documentation and kits to convert nine F/A-18E and two F/A-18F aircraft into a Blue Angel configuration in accordance with engineering change proposal 6480. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be completed in December 2021. Fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $17,002,107 will be 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, Md., is the contracting activity.
CNO motivates SPAWAR workforce, discusses increasingly technological environment By Elisha Gambo Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Public Affairs
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (NNS) – The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) visited Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) Aug. 22, where he focused on how to compete and win in today’s increasingly competitive environment. CNO Adm. John Richardson kicked off the visit with an all-hands gathering of SPAWAR personnel where he spoke about the importance of providing the Navy the nation needs today and in the coming decades. “We have to approach the competition with a sense of urgency; with a sense that we do not have a divine right to victory,” Richardson said. “We have to work extremely hard to achieve victory as we
have before. I say that with a tremendous sense of confidence in the team here at SPAWAR.” Speaking to a predominantly civilian workforce, Richardson highlighted the importance of obtaining and retaining the best and the brightest the nation has to offer, and the appreciation he has for those who have chosen to use their talents in support of their country. “The competition for high-tech talent is extremely intense,” Richardson said. “All of you have chosen to raise your right hand, take an oath to our constitution, and be part of this team that today is something bigger than any one of us could have envisioned.” Richardson went on to talk about his appreciation for the SPAWAR workforce, and his attention to accelerating the pace at which technology is put into the hands of the warfighter.
“Every decision that I make starts with Navy personnel in mind,” Richardson said. “It starts with me asking, ‘what can I do to eliminate obstacles that get in the way of connecting (our people) with their missions? What can I do to accelerate closure on mission success?’” Following the all-hands event, Richardson took the time to meet with SPAWAR scientists who are developing some of today’s most innovative warfighting technologies from lasers, to machine learning technology, to cyber security capabilities. “It’s a privilege be selected to showcase my team’s efforts to the CNO,” Dr. Nick Johnson, an engineer at SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific said. “I demonstrated the work being done in the area of machine learning, and highlighted how the SPAWAR enterprise is providing critical technology to the fleet across
multiple warfighting domains.” Demonstrating these cutting-edge developments, and interacting face-to-face with Richardson provided SPAWAR scientists and engineers with a deeper understanding of how their work is supporting the warfighter and revolutionizing the Navy. SPAWAR identifies, develops, delivers and sustains information warfighting capabilities supporting naval, joint, coalition and other national missions. SPAWAR consists of more than 10,000 active duty military and civil service professionals located around the world and close to the fleet to keep SPAWAR at the forefront of research, engineering and acquisition to provide and sustain information warfare capabilities to the fleet. For more news from Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, visit www. navy.mil/local/spawar.
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