Boeing's Super Hornet

 The Boeing Company has demonstrated successfully its ability to land, take off from and ski-jump that equips India's two aircraft carriers- INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant- and is confident that it will be able to bag the tender the Indian Navy's Multi-Role-Carrier-Based-Fighters (MRCBF) requirement. The aircraft is named F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III. 

The competition to Boeing's Super Hornet in the MRCBF race is the naval version of the French Rafale Fighter called the Rafale Marine. However, Rafale Marine has only a single seat version, while the Indian Nany requires both single seat and the twin seat version. A two seat fighter offers mission flexibility, higher fleet utilization and the ability to carry out high workload missions that require a second crew member and it can also be used as a trainer. 

Alain Garcia, Boeing's defence head in India has said that it gives a lot of flexibility from a training perspective and a mission perspective to the Indian Navy that a offer a twin seat, carrier-capable platform. In January, the Rafale Marine has undergone tests at the "shore-based test facility" off the two Indian aircraft carriers in Goa and now the Super Hornet Block will be tested. 

Boeing has announced that during the test in Goa, the two US Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornets completed multiple ski-jumps, roll-in and fly-in arrested landings, as well as performance flights, in variety of weights in the air-to-air, air-to-ground, and air-to-surface configurations, meeting Indian Navy's test requirements. 

The Super Hornet Block III is the US Navy's premier fighter, with over 800 aircrafts delivered around the world and over 2.5 million flight hours logged. The US Navy intends to retain the Super Hornet in service till beyond 2035.