Rafale Purchase by Indian Navy is Major Blow to Super Hornet’s Future Written 17 July 2023
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Two U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornets fly a combat patrol over Afghanistan in 2008. | Staff Sgt. Aaron Allmon; U.S. Air Force; Wikipedia; public domain
Aviation Week reported that the announced selection by the Indian Navy of a French fighter “is another blow to the future of Boeing’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet assembly line in St. Louis.” The Boeing Company “had already announced plans to wind down F/A-18E/F production in Missouri by 2025, but held out hope that potential orders in India could extend U.S. assembly operations by a year and keep the fighter in production on a new assembly line on the subcontinent.” But India’s Navy announced the selection on Friday of the Dassault Rafale-M “to become its next carrier-based fighter.” Boeing Vice President of Business Development for Air Dominance Programs Bernd Peters said, “So we’ll likely cease production [of the Super Hornet] around the 2025 time frame.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)