With a new Navy plan to retire nearly half its F/A-18A/B/C/D fleet in the near term to help boost the readiness of its youngest so called "legacy Hornets," which the USMC will inherit in the not so distant future, the Corps is now moving to upgrade seven squadrons worth of jets with new active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars. The move signifies the most substantial capability upgrade in the legacy Hornet's entire history.

In a posting on the government's contracting site FBO.gov it states that the USMC is looking to install the systems "in 4th Quarter 2020 and complete in 4th Quarter 2022, for fielding of a total of 98 systems (7 fleet squadrons retrofitted with 14 replacement radars each." These 98 Hornets stand to be the most capable of their kind once upgraded as an AESA array gives a fighter a slew of enhanced abilities. These include drastically enhanced detection and tracking ranges, target discrimination and identification, the ability to spot low-flying reduced radar cross-section targets like cruise missiles, as well as the capability to rapidly scan huge volumes of airspace as AESA radars do not rely on a mechanically steered radar dish to do so.

Raytheon APG-73

AESA radars and their powerful backend processing abilities can also "interweave" air-to-air and air-to-ground radar modes simultaneously, drastically increasing a fighter pilot's situational awareness and defensive capabilities. Even electronic attack and long-range communications are secondary capabilities of an AESA array, the former of which could be intrinsic to the jet's battlefield survivability in the years to come. But maybe most important is that AESA's are far more reliable than their mechanical scanning counterparts. And the supportability of the existing AN/APG-73 radars is becoming a big concern for the USMC. The contracting notice reads:

"The AN/APG-73 is installed on F/A-18 C/D aircraft. The APG-73 has been subject to ongoing maintainability, supportability, and readiness issues. To alleviate these issues, the USMC is pursuing a replacement to the APG-73. Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) solutions are required due to the increased reliability and sustainability requirements as well as the associated capability improvements."

The F/A-18A Hornet was originally fitted with an AN/APG-65 radar, which is lighter and less capable, especially in air-to-ground modes, than its successor, the AN/APG-73 which appeared during the F/A-18C's production run. The earliest F/A-18E/F Super Hornets were built with the AN/APG-73 as well, but Raytheon's AN/APG-79 AESA radar system quickly became a prime feature of the Super Hornet and Growler, and the radar sets were back-fitted to earlier Super Hornet jets.

USN