Looks like the F-18 line isn't going to close any time soon......
U.S. Navy F-35 Boost Partly Offsets Last Year’s Cuts
The U.S. Navy will increase its planned future orders of the Lockheed Martin F-35C Joint Strike Fighter in the fiscal 2017 defense budget to be released Tuesday, as directed by Defense Secretary Ash Carter in a December memo to the service.
However, the increases only partially offset cuts that were made in the 2016 budget and do not take effect until 2019 and later years, according to internal Navy documents obtained by Aviation Week.
The service also will plan to buy two more F/A-18E/F Super Hornets with fiscal 2017 overseas contingency operations money and another 14 in later budget years.
However, internal documents once again discuss a “shortfall” in strike fighters because of late deliveries of F-35Cs and higher-than-planned utilization of F/A-18s. Even with an F/A-18E/F service life extension program, with installations expected to begin in 2024, the Navy projects a shortfall of 193 Super Hornets in 2026 and suggests that the service will need more of the Boeing fighters: “Far-term (2020-2035) inventory is predominantly affected by new aircraft procurement, F/A-18E/F and F-35,” the document states.
Under the 2017 budget plan, the Navy’s total F-35C buys between fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2021 will total 74 aircraft – more than the 64 planned last year but still fewer than the 78 envisioned in 2015. The Navy does not make a squadron-size buy (12 airplanes) until 2019, with deliveries in 2021.......