Roxana Tiron at The Hill is reporting today that Boeing using delays in the Joint Strike Fighter program as an opportunity to sell more Super Hornets to the U.S. Navy.
Roxana writes that "the stakes are high, for Boeing could eventually be inched out of the domestic fighter jet business if the Navy does not buy more F/A 18 E/F Super Hornets after fiscal 2012." She also mentions a brewing foreign military sales battle in Australia between Lockheed (the JSF prime contractor) and Boeing.
For the Navy's part, they would certainly love a good excuse to add more Super Hornets to their defense budget wish list. The airplane has proved reliable, maintainable, and capable. And the AESA radar is arguably a next-generation "game changer."
The competition between Boeing and Lockheed-Martin should do nothing but get more intense as time goes on here. DT will be watching . . .
-- Ward
