F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet & EA-18G Growler

Developed to overcome some of the shortcomings of the original, or Legacy, Hornet and replace the aging and expensive to maintain F-14, the Super Hornet has proven to be nothing if not versatile. It has replaced not only the Tomcat and the Legacy Hornet, but the A-6 Intruder, and with the development of the EA-18G Growler, it has mastered the EA-6B’s electronic warfare role. Although the Super Hornet shares some equipment with its predecessor Hornet, it is essentially a new aircraft and bigger all the way around and the mainstay of the modern U.S. Navy.

The versatile Super Hornet is explored in F/A-18E/F Super Hornet & EA-18G Growler — The US Navy’s Primary Fighter/Attack Aircraft from Schiffer’s Legends of Warfare Aviation series. Author Ken Neubeck details the development of the plane and offers useful comparisons of it and the Legacy Hornet. The second chapter looks at the Super Hornet in walkaround photos that provide plenty of detail for modelers to sink their teeth into.

Sections examined include landing gear, engines, weapons, pylons, airframe, cockpit, ejection seat, and arrestor hook. Chapter 23 lists the Navy’s Super Hornet squadrons with badges and a photo of an aircraft from each. Over the three chapters that follow, Neubeck does the same thing for the EA-18G, tracing the Growler’s development, offering several pictures of the aircraft’s unique features, and giving an accounting of Growler Squadrons. The book wraps up with three short chapters about Super Hornets and Growlers in combat operations, the sale of several of the aircraft to the Royal Australian Air Force and possible delivery to other nations, and finally, future developments.

To say the Super Hornet is a popular modeling subject is probably an understatement. The photos in this book will be useful if you plan to build any of the kits on the market.