Boeing F/A-18 to be the U.S. Navy's Numerically Predominant Fighter into the 2030s

Despite production scheduled to end by 2025, the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet will be the numerically predominant fighter aircraft in the U.S. Navy's carrier fighter air wing well into the 2030s.
Service Life Modification (SLM) initiatives and capability upgrades help the aircraft already in the fleet maintain their tactical relevance. Future SLM efforts will provide Block II aircraft with Block III capability, increasing service life to 10,000 hours, significantly enhancing lethality and survivability via on-board and shared high-fidelity sensor data, and improving aircrew tactical decision aids, the Naval Air Systems Command said in a statement Monday.
New Super Hornets continue to enter the fleet, with the Navy now expecting the final delivery to occur in 2025—ensuring the capabilities of the strike fighter remain at the service of the nation now and well into the future.
Said Rear Adm. John Lemmon, Program Executive Officer, Tactical Aircraft Programs, “the fleet will continue to fly these aircraft for decades to come through effective sustainment and modernization programs and practices directed by the F/A-18 and EA-18G Program Office.”
The U.S. Navy placed an order for 78 F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III variant in 2019 and the first aircraft was delivered in September 2021.
The Super Hornet is being progressively replaced by the Lockheed Martin F-35C short take off and landing aircraft as a carrier-based fighter jet.