The first slide kind of speaks for itself:

 

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k90/in_a_coma_dial_999/strategypage/superhornet.jpg" />

The Super Hornet roadmap apparently includes CFTs, a yet-more-advanced cockpit, an internal IRST, stealthy weapons pod, and improved LWR and MAWS.

The next slide is even more interesting:

 

The roadmaps show the paths for the Eagle and Super Hornet, along with the well-known future programs like naval UCAV, F-22 followon, Super Hornet followon, and NGB.  But the last line, labeled "Proprietary", implies a program that is in production now.

 

I wonder what that is.

Licensed Production of the Rafale, and the termination of all other tactical fighter programs in the US inventory.

 

AW speculates.

Nice.  "The most visible change is a stealth-configured weapon pod designed to accommodate a range of weapons, including four Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (Amraams)"

 

I "wonder" if anyone has done the math and realized a Silent Eagle could carry one of those as well.  Or even more than one.

AFAIK the conformal fuel tanks on the Silent Eagle also act as internal weapons bays, whereas the conformal fuel tanks on the SH are positioned more like the F-16I on top of the fuselage.

1) they can't be conformal fuel and intregrated weapons, they can be conformal wrapped over a weapons dismount system - you can't have both at an "internal level"

2) I doubt whether the conformals for a SH can go on top of the fuselage as it will impact on handling and CoG.  they need to be close to wing mounts as it will effect CoG and handling issues.  It also impacts upon area rule issues.

 

3) The Israelis also don't have them "on top" - most of their ewarfare kit is along the spine - the conformals wrap to the centreline - not on the centreline

The illustrations on the Boeing slides pretty clearly show the CFTs are on the top of the fuselage, between the hump and the wing root.  They really don't have anything in common with the CFTs / bolt-on weapons bays of the Silent Eagle.

 

What I was referring to was that the Silent Eagle could almost certainly be configured to carry the "stealthy weapons pod" being developed for the Super Hornet.  That pod is an underbelly pod that looks like a big external fuel tank, it is not conformal.

 

Sorry, imprecise language on my part. By the Hornet CFTs being on top I meant above the wing line, such as on the F-16I, as opposed to below as on the Silent Eagle.

I am thoroughly confused by the Eagle CFTs now however; from all of their descriptions in the press I had gathered that there was a single conformal unit on each side of the plane that contained fuel on the inside side and an internal weapons bay on the outer side. I never thought they were storing missiles in the fuel tank, but that the fuel tank and the missile bay were part of the same conformal unit. Descriptions all seem to refer to them this way, as a single unit.

Are they interchangeable instead? Where you either put on a CFT or a conformal weapons bay but not both? Or am I missing something completely.