Boeing has announced the end of production in 2025 of the F/A-18 Super Hornet, the fighter from the 2022 film ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, after a final delivery to the US Navy and after 40 years of deliveries.
The company expects to end production of the fighter jet by the end of 2025, but notes that production of the plane may be extended to 2027 if an order is placed by India.
The first F/A-18 debuted in 1983 and was built by McDonnell Douglas, which merged with Boeing in 1997, and since that year more than 2,000 Hornets, Super Hornets, and Growlers have been delivered to the US military and US military. governments of allied countries. such as Canada, Finland, Australia and Malaysia.
But the plane’s fate has been uncertain in recent years, and after the fall of 2021, the Navy stopped planning any purchase of Super Hornets, citing the age of the plane’s ‘design’, upholding an act of US Congress. .so far production.
News of the end of production comes less than a month after Boeing delivered the last 747, used for half a century for passenger and cargo service.
Boeing argues that ending production of the F/A-18 will allow it to focus on future military aircraft, manned and unmanned, and increase production of other defense programs, announcing plans to build three new facilities in St. Louis, where F/A-18s are assembled.
“We are planning for the future, and building fighter jets is in our DNA,” said Steve Nordlund, vice president of Boeing’s Air Domain Division.
The company clarified that it will continue to develop upgrades for the current fleet of F/A-18 Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers.
The Super Hornet was featured prominently in the 2022 movie “Top Gun: Maverick,” with Tom Cruise playing the role of a Navy aviator.
Source: TSF
