The production of the US Navy’s carrier-based workhorse, the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, appears to be coming to an end, as Northrop Grumman disclosed that it completed its final lot of structural components in 2025.
Failing to attract new customers for its F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet, the US-based aerospace giant Boeing announced in 2023 that it would shutter the production line for the aircraft by late 2025.
However, that deadline was pushed back when the US Navy awarded Boeing a USD 1.3 billion contract to acquire 17 Block III Super Hornet fighters and deliver a technical data package essential to the aircraft’s maintenance.
The aerospace giant stated that its production lines will be shuttered once delivery of its last order is completed, projected for 2027.
Northrop Grumman, a subcontractor on the program, disclosed in a quarterly call on January 28 that the company completed its final lot of parts, such as aft/centre fuselages and vertical tails for the Super Hornet in 2025, indicating that the clock is ticking on the production lines at Boeing’s St. Louis, Missouri.
Although production is coming to a permanent halt, Boeing will continue upgrading the aircraft. Late last year, it received a new $930.77 million contract from the US Navy to continue work on the Super Hornet Service Life Modification (SLM) program.
The program will increase the service life of up to 60 F/A-18E/F aircraft from 6,000 to 10,000 flying hours, keeping them operational well into the future. Additionally, the US Navy has contracted Boeing to upgrade all the older Super Hornets to the latest Block III standard.
Over the last few years, many proponents have called for the closure of Super Hornet production lines. For instance, a former head of Navy acquisition, James Geurts, said the best way to support the ideal mix of F-18s and F-35s was to stop purchasing Super Hornets after the contract expires in Fiscal Year 2021 and instead concentrate on obtaining as many through the Service Life Modification (SLM) program each year, according to a USNI report.
In 2024, Mark Sears, VP of Boeing, said the company plans to gradually phase out the production of Super Hornets, redirecting its St. Louis workforce to other programs such as the F-15EX fighter, the T-7A trainer, and the MQ-25 drone.
F-15EX Eagle II production is accelerating, with over 129 aircraft now planned for the US Air Force, up from initial, lower projections. Similarly, production of the T-7 Red Hawk is in full swing, and deliveries of the trainer have already commenced, as recently reported by EurAsian Times.
The shuttering of Super Hornet production lines comes as the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are attempting to revive funding for the F/A-XX carrier-based next-generation combat jet program, which has trailed its USAF counterpart, the F-47, also being developed by Boeing. Notably, Boeing is believed to be competing with Northrop Grumman for the contract.
As per plan, the F/A-XX will eventually replace the aging 4+ generation Super Hornets and operate alongside the F-35C fifth-generation stealth fighter jets.
Snub From India Became A Catalyst Of Closure
Despite its best efforts to market the Block III jet to customers such as Canada, Finland, Germany, Poland, and Switzerland, Boeing was unable to secure any new contracts and kept succumbing to rivals such as Saab Gripen, Dassault Rafale, and Lockheed Martin F-35s.
The biggest upset, however, came from India.
While announcing the possible shuttering of the Super Hornet production lines, Boeing said the deadline would be extended by 2 years to 2027 if the Indian Navy selected the F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III, which was competing against the French Dassault Rafale-Marine.
Boeing diligently pushed the sale of the Super Hornet to India in 2022 and announced a roadmap to significantly increase its investments, in line with the “Make in India” initiative. It also pledged to transfer cutting-edge technologies to the Indian industry if New Delhi selected the Super Hornets.
The aircraft underwent extensive trials at a shore-based facility in India, including take-off trials from both ski-jump and catapult launchers.
However, India concluded that the French Rafale-M was more suitable and better aligned with its Navy’s operational requirements than the Super Hornets. New Delhi subsequently announced the French aircraft’s selection, prompting Boeing to close the lid on production of the aircraft that symbolised US global power projection for decades.
“We ran several international campaigns or competitions that we were unsuccessful in previous years,” Mark Sears, Boeing vice president for fighters, said in an interview in 2024. “That kind of played out, and there are no active discussions with the Navy about additional F-18s beyond these.”
The Combat Prowess Of Super Hornet
Super Hornet was developed in response to a pressing requirement to close a critical capability gap in US naval aviation during a period of significant service restructuring.
The A-6 Intruder fleet was aging, the F-14 Tomcats were becoming difficult & expensive to maintain, and the baseline F/A-18 Hornets lacked the range and payload for deep-strike operations, creating a capability gap for the US Navy in the 1980s.
Since building a new jet from scratch would require a significant investment in an austerity-dominated era, McDonnell Douglas proposed developing a 70% larger, extensively redesigned version of the F/A-18 Hornet.
The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet production line was established in the mid-1990s, initially under McDonnell Douglas, which was acquired by Boeing in 1997. The aircraft made its maiden flight on November 29, 1995, and full-rate production began in September 1997.
The first production Super Hornet flew in November 1998, with deliveries to the US Navy beginning in January 1999.
It replaced the F-14 Tomcat in fleet defence, assumed the A-6 Intruder’s strike duty, and eventually served as the model for the EA-18G Growler, a dedicated Electronic Warfare combat aircraft that entered service with the US Navy in 2009.
“The Super Hornet is the second major model upgrade since the inception of the F/A-18 aircraft program, highly capable across the full mission spectrum: air superiority, fighter escort, reconnaissance, aerial refuelling, close air support, air defence suppression and day/night precision strike,” as per information on the official website of NAVAIR (Naval Air Systems Command).
The production line, primarily at Boeing’s facilities in St. Louis, Missouri, has continued to churn out these cutting-edge jets since then.
The aircraft was upgraded to Block II standard in 2002, which included the Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, improved sensors and avionics, increased range, and the capability to employ an arsenal of precision weapons.
This aircraft then became the workhorse of the US Navy’s carrier operations and recently received its most advanced Block III upgrade.
The US Navy is the biggest operator of the Super Hornet—325 single-seat F/A-18Es, 250 two-seat F/A-18Fs, and 160 EA-18Gs—as of April 2025. However, those numbers may have changed now as the fleet has faced a troubling string of incidents over the past year, as previously reported by the EurAsian Times.
The aircraft has seen very extensive combat since it made its combat debut with a strike against hostile targets in Iraq’s no-fly zone in November 2002. By the Middle of the new millennium, the Super Hornet was the most popular strike fighter on American carriers and assumed significant tanker, precision-strike, and ISR responsibilities.
The aircraft secured its first and most stunning kill eight years ago when it shot down a Soviet-origin Su-22 in Syria. You can read a detailed account of this encounter in a previous EurAsian Times report.
The Super Hornet was deployed to the Middle Eastern theatre in March 2025 against the Iran-backed Houthis. It was regularly deployed to bomb Houthi targets inside Yemen using munitions such as Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapons (JSOW), and GBU-53/B Stormbreaker glide bombs.
And more recently, the Super Hornet and Growler were deployed to the Caribbean ahead of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s capture. The Growlers were reportedly crucial for conducting SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defence) missions, which directly contributed to the success of this high-stakes operation without any losses to the US.
And, as the US expands its military build-up in the Middle East amid tensions with Iran, the Super Hornet sits on the deck of USS Abraham Lincoln, which has now been deployed to the theatre.
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