Top Stories
First Super Hornet contract is signed


Edition 4908, 17 May, 2007
 
SIGNED: Air Attaché AIRCDRE Graham Bentley and Mark Reynolds from the US Counsellor Defence Materiel Branch sign the first Super Hornet contract in Washington.
Photo by Susan Richards
 
Defence has signed its first contract – worth about $2.9 billion – with the United States Navy for the acquisition of 24 F/A-18F Super Hornets and associated support systems.

Air Attaché AIRCDRE Graham Bentley joined Mark Reynolds from the US Counsellor Defence Materiel Branch in signing the Super Hornet Foreign Military Sales Letter of Offer and Acceptance in Washington.

Additional cases will be established later this year for weapons acquisition and sustainment of the aircraft. The total program investment is about $6 billion over 10 years, which includes acquisition and all personnel and support costs.

Australian personnel will begin Super Hornet training in the United States in 2009. The withdrawal of the F-111 is expected in 2010 with the F/A-18F Super Hornets to be operational the same year.

“[The acquisition] will ensure our air combat capability edge is maintained through the transition to the Joint Strike Fighter over the next decade,” GPCAPT Steve Roberton from AFHQ said.