Right into the danger zone
PHOTOS BY CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM
Airman Timothy Abeyta leaned on the nose of the Navy's newest tactical fighter, the F/A-18E Super Hornet, yesterday. Inside the cockpit was fighter pilot Lt. Robert Wise Sideshow, awaiting his cue to get ready for takeoff. Below, a Super Hornet flew off the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln during flight operations held yesterday.
BOARD THE USS LINCOLN >> Lt. Robert "Lick" Kihm knows no thrill greater than going from zero to 170 mph within seconds at the controls of the Navy's newest weapon, the F/A-18E Super Hornet.
By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com"It's a fun, fun jet to fly," said Kihm, 28, as he prepared for a series of evening maneuvers last night several hundred miles north of Oahu.
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@ STARBULLETIN.COM
Fighter pilot Lt. Robert "Lick" Kihm explained yesterday that the Super Hornet has new features to help pilots handle the challenge of flying the Navy's new plane.
Kihm is one of six Navy aviators who belong to VFA 115, the only Pacific Fleet squadron made up solely of Super Hornets and who have flown only Super Hornets or Rhino combat jets.
Although the Lincoln has two other squadrons of older F/A-18C Hornets and one F-14 Tomcat squadron, over the next six months the Super Hornet will receive the most media attention, since it is the Navy's first combat jet in two decades.
Lt. Stephan "Stillborn" Walborn acknowledges the "Super Charlie" is a challenge to fly.
Some believe the challenge of many new systems may be too great for one pilot.
"There is a lot more thrown at us," said Kihm, who was commissioned in 1997 through the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of California-Berkeley, "but there are also other features to help us manage everything better."
In its current deployment, the Super Hornet could face its first test in combat after two decades of research and development.
Walborn believes it is up to the challenge, either against Iraq or farther south in the Arabian Sea and the continuing war against terrorism in Afghanistan.
"It's 33 percent bigger (than the original Hornets)," Walborn said. "There are a few more gadgets with more room to expand."
One of the gadgets is a new infrared sensing system. The Super Hornet has the latest avionics, touch-screen displays in the cockpit and better computers.
It can carry more pounds and more missiles and is capable of carrying four 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions, the precision guided bombs used in Afghanistan, while the older Hornets can carry only one.
Its larger fuel tanks mean that the Super Charlie can fly about 132 miles farther than the older Hornets without having to refuel.
"The extra legs means more fuel on board," Walborn added, "and that is an obvious plus." It also means it can languish longer over target areas.
It also has the ability to be converted within 90 minutes by trading its bombs for 500-gallon fuel tanks to serve as a refueler, replacing the S-3 Viking.Eventually, with more modifications the Super Hornet also could replace the aging AE-6B Prowler, which is now used in electronic counterwarfare as a radar jammer.
Both Walborn and Kihm said their squadron is acutely aware that the Navy is anxious on this deployment to validate the Super Charlie's $57 million sticker price -- nearly double the cost of the original version. For that reason, the Marine Corps, which is the only other service to fly Hornets, decided against buying the upgraded version.
The Super Hornet is the Navy's first manned tactical aircraft in 20 years. Earlier versions of the F/A-18 have been in service in the Navy and Marine Corps since the early 1980s and are about as old as the Air Force's F-16s. At one point during the testing phase in 1996, the Super Hornet encountered "wing drop," a phenomenon where one wing would dip unexpectedly in some turns, causing the plane to roll unexpectedly. Millions of dollars were spent to correct the problem.
More than 222 Super Hornets will be built by Boeing Co. over the next five years with a price tag of $8.9 billion. Another 300 are in the planning stage unless they are cut from production by the Pentagon.
