Among the contentious items in the Navy’s budget is how long the service should continue to buy Boeing-made F/A-18E/F Super Hornet jet fighters. The official Pentagon position is that once the Navy begins buying Lockheed-made F-35s in a few years, it will no longer purchase Super Hornets.
The line is now scheduled to be shut down in 2012. But Boeing and its supporters on Capitol Hill are fighting to keep the F/A-18 line open indefinitely, arguing that the Pentagon needs two tactical aircraft manufacturers to stay in business so there can be competition. Boeing ally Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., says the F-18 is nearly one-third the price of an F-35 and has 80 percent of the capability. The F-35 is "overcost, behind schedule, unproven," McCaskill tells Defense Secretary Robert Gates during a recent hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. She says the Super Hornet costs $50 million, compared to the $135 million price tag for the F-35.
But Navy leaders appear unconvinced. The aviation industrial base will be fine after Boeing shuts down Super Hornet production, says Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead.
Conventional jet fighters are not the only means to keep aviation companies in business, he tells reporters. The Navy may one day deploy unmanned aircraft on carrier decks, he says, which will bring new competitors to the industry.
Future tactical aviation needs for all the military services will be a topic of debate in the Quadrennial Defense Review.
The Navy has enough tactical aircraft for now, says Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Further analysis will determine the extent of the so-called "fighter gap" that, McCaskill contends, will leave the Navy 200 aircraft short of what it needs to fill its air wings in the coming years.