Fighter upgrades target longer range

Australia’s Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II combat aircraft will get sharper teeth under the terms of the Defence Strategic Review.

RAAF’s Super Hornets will be upgraded with Joint Air to Surface Strike Missile (JASSM) capabilities. PIcture: Nigel Pittaway

Australia’s Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II combat aircraft will get sharper teeth under the terms of the recently released Defence Strategic Review (DSR).

The DSR considers an air-launched long-range strike capability essential to Australia’s future security given the recent changes in strategic circumstances, calling for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to be capable of  “holding an adversary at risk further from our shores”.

The document specifically recommends both fleets of combat jets undergo capability upgrades and gain new long-range air-to-surface weapons.

Both recommendations have been agreed upon – or agreed in principle – by the government. Together, the F/A-18F and F-35A make up the offensive capability of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and the status quo is set to remain for the foreseeable future.

The RAAF has 24 Super Hornets, acquired as a “bridging strategy” to mitigate delays to the ­F-35A program. Although a decision on its future is expected in coming years, the DSR makes no mention of its retirement and the latest budget documents reveal it will serve until at least 2027.

“During 2023-2024, F/A-18F aircraft are scheduled to undergo planned capability upgrades as part of the US Navy-managed Spiral Upgrade Program to ensure the platform’s ongoing lethality and survivability in a contested environment, and to maintain configuration alignment with the US Navy,” the budget documents report.

The final F-35A, out of 72 on order, is expected to be delivered by the end of the year, marking Final Operational Capability (FOC). Despite this, upgrades are already in the pipeline under Lockheed Martin’s Technical Refresh 3 (TR3) program. This will see the F-35A receive hardware and software upgrades to ensure its relevance in the modern battlespace. Beyond this is a further series of hardware and software enhancements under the international F-35 Block 4 upgrade program.

The DSR recommends Australia’s F-35s are upgraded to Block 4 standard in coming years, allowing them to employ the new weapons it considers essential to enhanced lethality.

Key among the weapons being acquired are Kongsberg’s Joint Strike Missile (JSM); and Lockheed Martin AGM-158B Joint Air to Surface Strike Missile – Extended Range (JASSM-ER) and AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) weapons.

“The F-35A Joint Strike Fighter and F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft must be able to operate the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile. The Joint Strike Missile should also be integrated onto the F-35A,” the DSR recommends. “To enable the F-35A fleet to operate the JSM, the aircraft will need to be upgraded to Block 4 configuration.”

Defence has approved $554m in the near term to acquire long- range air-to-surface strike missiles under Project Air 6004 Phase 2 (Multi Domain Joint Strike – Air Launch), in which JASSM will initially be integrated with the Super Hornets. In the future it will also equip the RAAF’s P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft and beyond that, the F-35A.

The acquisition of JASSM-ER was first announced by the Morrison government in April 2022.

“The JASSM-ER will enable the Super Hornet and, in the future the F-35A, to engage targets at a range of 900km,” then-defence minister Peter Dutton said at the time.

The F-35A and Super Hornet fleets are also set to receive more precision-guided munitions under Air 6000 Phase 3 (Weapons and Countermeasures for Air Combat Capability). This will see stocks of Small Diameter Bombs (SDB) I and II; and 500lb and 2000lb guided bombs acquired. A further program, Air 6000 Phase 6 (Air to Air Weapons for Joint Strike Fighter), will purchase war stocks of Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder and AIM120D Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missiles (AMRAAMs).

The LRASM and JASM maritime strike weapons will be acquired for both combat jet fleets under Project Air 3023 Phase 1 (Enhanced Maritime Strike for Air Combat Capability).

LRASM employs precision routing and guidance to detect and destroy specific targets within a group of ships at sea and has a brochure range of about 560km.

The JSM is a collaboration between Norway’s Kongsberg and Raytheon in the US and is specifically designed to fit inside the F-35A’s weapons bay, preserving the aircraft’s stealth characteristics. Brochure figures claim the JSM can strike targets in excess of 275km away.