Fearing fighter gap, Navy mulls new jet buy (Navy Times)

[GreatAmerican]

<p>[Fearing</a> fighter gap, Navy mulls new jet buy - Navy News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Navy Times](<a href=“http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/03/navy_fighter_gap_030508w/]Fearing”>http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/03/navy_fighter_gap_030508w/)</p>

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The Navy is considering buying 69 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters to bridge a “strike-fighter gap” that commanders fear could imperil aviation readiness at a time when older jets are wearing out before new aircraft are ready to take their place, top service officials said Wednesday.</p>

<p>Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, who appeared before a Senate panel with Navy Secretary Donald Winter and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway, mentioned the “fighter gap” in written testimony submitted to the Senate Appropriations Committee defense subcommittee, which convened to review the Department of the Navy’s fiscal 2009 budget request.</p>

<p>After the hearing, Roughead said Navy planners worried that many of today’s Super Hornets would be at the end of their service lives by about 2015, but their scheduled replacement, the F-35 Lightning II, might not be ready to fill the vacancies in carrier air wings. They also worried that the exiting fighters would wear out quicker than planned. Roughead said he doesn’t know if the Navy would buy the existing E- or F-variants of the venerable fighter or if planners would be interested in a so-called “4.75 generation Hornet” with improved avionics that manufacturer Boeing has mentioned as an option for some defense clients…

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