Defense Acquisitions

The F/A-18E (single seat) and the F/A-18F (two seat) aircraft is intended to replace the F/A-18C (single seat), F/A-18D (two seat), A-6, and F-14 aircraft as they reach the end of their service life and are retired. The F/A-18E/F is designed primarily to meet the Navy's fighter escort, interdiction, fleet air defense, and close air support mission requirements. GAO found that although the F/A-18E/F met it key performance parameters, such as range and carrier suitability, the F/A-18E/F did not demonstrate operational performance over the existing F/A-18C aircraft. Operational testers compared the two aircraft in 18 operational mission areas, such as interdiction, fighter escort, combat air patrol, air combat maneuvering, and air-to-air weapons. Using a numerical scale, the testers rated the F/A-18E/F's operational effectiveness essentially the same as the F/A-18C's. Deficiencies identified by the operational testers will be costly to correct and raise questions about whether the Navy should enter into a multiyear procurement contract for full-rate production of the aircraft. The major deficiency was the aircraft's weak aerodynamic performance, which reduced the plane's ability to accelerate, climb and turn, and causes it to have a low top speed. The F/A-18E/F also has a noise and vibration problem that damages the air-to-air and some air-to-ground missile carried by the plane.

GAO noted that: (1) although the F/A-18E/F met its key performance parameters, the operational testers' comparisons of the F/A-18E/F to the existing F/A-18C showed that the F/A-18E/F did not demonstrate superior operational performance over the existing F/A-18C aircraft; (2) the testers compared the operational effectiveness of the F/A-18C to the F/A-18E/F in 18 operational mission areas such as interdiction, fighter escort, combat air patrol, air combat maneuvering, and air-to-air weapons; (3) using a numerical scale, the testers rated the F/A-18E/F's operational effectiveness essentially the same as the F/A-18C's; (4) deficiencies identified by the operational testers will be costly to correct and raise questions about whether the Navy should enter into a multiyear procurement contract for full-rate production of the aircraft; (5) the major deficiency was the aircraft's weak aerodynamic performance, which reduces the aircraft's ability to accelerate, climb and turn, and causes it to have a low top speed; (6) these deficiencies reduce the aircraft's ability to: (a) maneuver during air-to-air combat with adversary aircraft; (b) quickly exit a combat area so as to not get caught from behind; (c) protect the carrier battle group by sprinting out to engage enemy aircraft; and (d) integrate into operations with the better performing F/A-18C aircraft; (7) correcting these deficiencies would require a costly program to develop and acquire a new engine and retrofit it on already produced aircraft; (8) the Navy does not plan to develop a new engine for the F/A-18E/F to correct these deficiencies because it believes that future upgrades to the aircraft will provide capabilities that will make the speed and maneuverability of the aircraft less critical in close-in aerial combat; (9) however, the upgrades are still under development and testing; (10) the F/A-18E/F also has a noise and vibration deficiency that damages the air-to-air and some air-to-ground weapons carried by the aircraft; (11) as a result, during operational testing limits were imposed on the number of hours the weapons could be carried on the aircraft before they needed to be replaced, and more frequent weapons inspections were imposed; (12) the operational testers concluded that the time limits and the more frequent inspections would not be acceptable for fleet operations and, therefore, rated the F/A-18E/F unsatisfactory in the air-to-air weapons area; and (13) the Navy's approach to mitigating this problem is to strengthen the weapons, rather than make costly changes to the aircraft.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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