First Flight of RAAF F-18F Super Hornet

Greg Combet, the Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, congratulated the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) and Boeing following the first flight of Australia’s F/A-18F Super Hornet in the United States

The Super Hornet took off from Lambert International Airport in St. Louis in July and follows the recent unveiling of the aircraft on July 8 at the company's Integrated Defense Systems facility

The first RAAF Super Hornet F/A-18F on takeoff at St Louis Lambert Field Photo: Dept of Defence

The Boeing Integrated Defense Systems production facility at Lambert Field/St Louis Airport is the same plant, then MacAir, that built the RAAF McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantoms.

The flight lasted more than an hour and represented an excellent result for the DMO, the Royal Australian Air Force, United States Navy, The Boeing Company and its industry partners General Electric, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. The F/A-18F Super Hornets will be based at RAAF Amberley and will aid the transition to a mature Joint Strike Fighter capability while allowing the Air Force to retire the F-111 fleet.