Boeing's Super Hornet is an enlarged version of the first generation F/A-18 that can fly further, carry more weapons and has an open architecture that allows for the future integration of new systems. Former F-14 Tomcat squadrons, such as VF-103 Jolly Rogers - two of whose F/A-18Fs are pictured, have transitioned to the Super Hornet.

This photograph allows a comparison to be made by showing a single-seat F/A-18E in the foreground with its wings folded and a two-seat F/A-18F accelerating along one of the USS Nimitz's catapults.

Super Hornets are able to act as air-to-air refuelling tankers, as illustrated here by an F/A-18F of VFA-211 Checkmates, which is refuelling another aircraft from the same squadron. In recent years this task has been assigned to S-3B Vikings, which are in the process of being retired.

Super Hornet is a strike aircraft that is able to operate day and night. This VFA-102 Diamondbacks' F/A-18F, carrying a Sidewinder air-to-air missile, is pictured about to blast off the deck of the USS Kitty Hawk.

Спарка из состава 41-й истребительно-штурмовой эскадрильи несет одну УР AGM-65 Maverick, две КАБ GBU-12 и подвесной контейнер ATFLIR.
In 2003, during the latter part of the campaign in Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein, the Super Hornet made its combat debut. A VFA-41 F/A-18F, carrying two laser-guided bombs under the starboard wing, a Maverick air-to-ground missile on the port side and an ATFLIR targeting/reconnaissance pod under the port engine intake, is pictured from a USAF KC-10 tanker in the Arabian Gulf area of operations.

EA-18G создан на базе двухместного F/A-18F. На самолете установлены новые антенны и обтекатели на законцовках крыла.
The US Navy intends to purchase 87 EA-18G Growlers to replace its electronic attack Prowlers. This EA-18G is pictured making the first visit by the type to NAS Whidbey Island, home of the US Navy's electronic attack squadrons, on April 9, 2007.

US Navy aircraft carriers have become veritable hornets' nests as not only are there first generation F/A-18s assigned to each air wing, but now also Super Hornets. An F/A-18E of VFA-27 Royal Maces launches of the deck of the USS Kitty Hawk into a forbidding sky in the South China Sea.