Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert is completing a list of unfunded priorities for Congress this week that could outline a need for buying additional F/A-18 Super Hornets separately from last month’s formal budget submission.

“Stay tuned,” Greenert told reporters following testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, noting the request had to be given to Congress before being made public. The Navy has 45 days to provide the wishlist from the date of the fiscal 2016 budget request submission, which took place on Feb. 2. A Navy spokesman said the unfunded priorities list will be done “soon.”

An E/A-18 Growler in the foreground shadowed by a F/A-18 Super Hornet. The Growlers will host the Next Gen Jammer. Photo by Boeing.
An E/A-18 Growler in the foreground shadowed by a F/A-18 Super Hornet. The Growlers will host the Next Gen Jammer. Photo by Boeing.

The Navy sought zero Boeing [BA] Super Hornets in the formal 2016 request, but Greenert has said the Navy is weighing whether to add the fighter jets to the unfunded priorities list to help address any capability gaps that could arise in the mid-2020s.

Greenert said the Navy is now looking at a possible shortfall of two or three fighter jet squadrons, or roughly 36 aircraft, because servicing older, legacy F/A-18 Hornets is taking longer than expected and requiring the Navy to fly Super Hornets more frequently than expected–taking a toll on their life expectancies.

Extending the lives of the legacy Hornets into the 2020s has proven more challenging than anticipated, Greenert said. “It is very complicated and harder than we imagined,” he said, adding that as a result the Navy is “taking life from (Super Hornets) sooner.”

The Navy is moving to extend the service lives of both aircraft. The goal is to extend the lives of all Hornets from 6,000 to at least 9,000 flight hours, while a smaller number–150– will be stretched to 10,000 hours, according to Capt. Danny Hernandez, a Navy spokesman. All Super Hornets will be extended from 6,000 to 9,000 flight hours, he said.

The Navy may also need more Super Hornets to help close any gaps between how long Hornets’ lives can be extended and the arrival of Lockheed Martin [LMT]-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in the 2020s. The Navy’s carrier variant F-35C is slated to be ready for initial operations in 2019, several years later than the Marine Corps and Air Force versions, although all are still being produced in low-rate production.

In rolling out its fiscal 2016 budget request, the Navy said it was curtailing some of its planned buys of the F-35Cs over the next several years to save money.

The Navy is also examining whether more EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft will ultimately be needed by the Pentagon. The EA-18Gs are also built by Boeing and share an airframe with the Super Hornets.

In testimony last month, Greenert told lawmakers the service’s planned buy of 153 EA-18Gs is about the number needed to meet current mission estimates, but said he also wanted to await a Pentagon-wide analysis of future electronic warfare requirements before reaching a final conclusion.

Without additional orders, Boeing has said that it would have to begin closing the St. Louis production line for the aircraft at the end of 2017. That timeframe includes the benefit of scaling back production from four aircraft monthly to two as part of a Navy-endorsed plan to stretch it out.

Dan Gillian, Boeing’s vice president and general manager for Super Hornets and Growlers, told Defense Daily on Tuesday that production is now down to three airframes per month with plans to drop to two in early 2016.

Gillian said the production rate will remain at two per-month even if the company gets more orders from the Navy or international customers, in order to maintain stability with suppliers and with workforce end-strength. Continuously changing pace creates inefficiencies, he said.

“Cycling back and forth is challenging and causes problems and creates risk,” Gillian said.

Gillian said Boeing has submitted Super Hornet proposals to Denmark and a Middle Eastern country he refused to disclose, and said the company is keeping an eye on a potential Belgian request for fighters. The Canadians could also wind up buying Super Hornets, Gillian noted, depending on how things turn out with their evaluation of the F-35 program.

Gillian said the current outlook for potential new international sales could add up to around 100 Super Hornets.