Neubeck, Ken F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet & EA-18G Growler. The US Navy's Primary Fighter/Attack Aircraft

The Boeing F/A-18 E/F "Super Hornet" is an evolutionary redesign of the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 A/B "Hornet". The Legacy F/A-18 "Hornet" first flew in 1980 and met the requirement for a multirole fighter to complement the larger and more expensive Grumman F-14 "Tomcat", serving in fleet defense interceptor and air superiority roles. The "Hornet" proved to be effective, but it was limited in combat radius due to fuel capacity. This would be corrected with the newer and larger F/A-18 "Super Hornet" design, which is now the primary fighter/attack aircraft used in the U.S. Navy carrier fleet and has replaced both the legacy "Hornet" and the F-14 "Tomcat". Additionally, the "Super Hornet" airframe design was used for the design of the EA-18G "Growler", which took over the electronic countermeasures (ECM) role of the EA-6B "Prowler".

The "Hornet" proved to be effective, but was limited in combat radius due to its lower fuel capacity. This was corrected by the newer and larger F/A-18 "Super Hornet", which is now the U.S. Navy's primary fighter and attack aircraft and has completely replaced "Hornet". In addition, the Super Hornet airframe was used in the design of the EA-18G Growler, an electronic warfare variant of the Super Hornet, which in turn replaced the now-defunct EA-6B Prowler.