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Since 1987, the US Navy Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, have flown a variety of F/A-18A, B, C and D model Boeing (originally, McDonnell Douglas) Hornet fighters.  That’s 30 years, meaning the Blues have flown the Hornet longer than any other type of aircraft in their history.  Heck, almost half their history is in Hornets.

But the “legacy” Hornet fleet is very, very tired, and increasingly difficult to maintain.

And so, Boeing has received a contract to modify a handful of F/A-18E and F Super Hornets to equip the team.

Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, is being awarded $12,053,076 for cost-plus-fixed-fee, delivery order 0002 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-16-G-0001) for non-recurring design and development engineering for an engineering change proposal for the "Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels) Super Hornet Conversion." Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri (82.8 percent); and El Segundo, California (17.2 percent), and is expected to be completed September 2017. Fiscal 2016 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $12,053,076 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

The most obvious modification to the jets for Blue Angels duty will be the installation of the smoke system. Changes to the fuel pumps will allow extended inverted flight, and the gun and most other weapon systems components will be removed.  Finally, a special spring system will be installed to the control column for a more precise “feel” during the maneuvers.

The Super Hornet looks a lot like the legacy Hornet, but is actually almost 25% bigger, and isn’t quite as sprightly a performer.

At a time when the fleet is struggling to keep enough jets up for training and operations, you would be forgiven for thinking that putting Super Hornets in blue would be a bad idea. But there are already in the fleet a number of jets that are not combat coded, and which it would be prohibitively expensive to bring up to standard. That is the pool of jets the Blue Angels will draw upon.