News Review: Airspeed to be Super Hornet supplier | ADM Feb 2011

Gregor Ferguson | Sydney

Boeing will offer multi-role cargo pods designed and manufactured by Adelaide-based SME Airspeed to future customers for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

The agreement, under the auspices of Boeing’s Office of Australian Industry Capability (OAIC), follows a RAAF order last September of undisclosed value to provide 28 of the pods for the RAAF’s Super Hornets, according to managing director Steve Barlow.

First deliveries are due in April this year.

The pods are 2.4m long and 0.4m in diameter with a hinged nosecone for cargo access.

They are aerodynamically and structurally identical to the radar emulator pods which Airspeed designed originally for the RAAF’s BAE Systems Hawk 127 Lead-In Fighters under license to Raytheon, who are the radar emulator contractor to BAE Systems.

The cargo pods have similar drag to the Mk82 bomb, are made of RF-transparent composites and can also be configured to carry cargo or optical or electronic payloads.

On the Hawk they are carried on the centre line; on RAAF Super Hornets they will likely be carried on the outboard wing pylons.

Airspeed’s agreement with Boeing will see the US prime offer Airspeed’s pods to all existing and potential future Super Hornet customers; these include the US Navy, India, Brazil, Denmark, Japan, Qatar and others.

The pods have already been certified for the PC-9, Hawk, Learjet, F-111 and ‘classic’ Hornet, says Barlow, who told ADM little stores clearance flight testing will be required to certify the pod for carriage on the Super Hornet.

The Super Hornet integration and stores clearance process will be carried out by the RAAF in Australia.