Navy Pays Boeing $16.7 Million to Close Super Hornet Production Lines

Stopping fighter production is not as simple as delivering the last aircraft and switching off the assembly line. The U.S. Navy awarded Boeing a $16,667,607 firm fixed price order in late September for work required to close the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler production lines while preserving resources that may be needed to support the jets into the 2040s.

The order pays for planning, engineering, analysis and program management not additional aircraft. Boeing must inventory and assess government-owned production equipment and tooling, recommend which assets should be retained, stored or disposed of, and deliver a master property inventory and disposition plan. Naval Air Systems Command is the contracting activity, and the work is expected to continue through November 2030.

That four-year schedule exposes the central tension in ending a long-running military-aircraft program. The Navy no longer needs a complete factory capable of producing new Super Hornets, but it cannot discard specialized equipment and technical resources that may remain useful for repairs, upgrades and replacement parts. Paying for an orderly shutdown is therefore part of sustaining the fielded fleet, not merely clearing factory space.

Closing the line requires engineering decisions

Production tooling can include fixtures, gauges, handling equipment and other aircraft-specific resources used to hold, form, inspect or verify components. The contract description does not identify which individual assets will survive the shutdown. That is precisely what the inventory and engineering assessment must determine.

Retention carries its own costs. Tooling consumes storage space, requires identification and documentation, and may need environmental protection or periodic maintenance. Disposing of too much, however, can make later support work more difficult or require expensive replacement equipment. The Navy and Boeing must find a narrower support footprint between those two outcomes: enough capability to maintain the aircraft without paying to preserve an entire dormant production system.

Government ownership adds another layer. Boeing cannot simply make unilateral decisions about federally owned property once assembly ends. Each asset needs to be identified, its condition and potential future use assessed, and a documented recommendation made for retention, storage, return or disposal. For taxpayers, the $16.7 million buys that controlled transition and the engineering analysis behind it.

The work will also remain geographically distributed. Approximately 60% is expected to occur in St. Louis, Missouri, 37% in El Segundo, California, and 3% in Bethpage, New York. That split reflects a shutdown extending beyond one final-assembly building and into the broader production and support system.

The final aircraft arrive years before shutdown work ends

The Navy ordered its final 17 Super Hornets in 2024 under an approximately $1.1 billion contract. The batch consists of 10 two-seat F/A-18F Lot 46 aircraft, two F/A-18F Lot 47 aircraft and five single-seat F/A-18E Lot 47 aircraft. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in winter 2026 and finish no later than spring 2027.

Shutdown support is expected to run until November 2030, more than three years after the last aircraft is due. That gap is not evidence that fighters will continue coming off the line. It shows how long property accounting, engineering review and disposition planning can continue after production itself has ended.

The 2024 aircraft order also included a technical data package intended to support the fleet after manufacturing stops. Data and physical tooling address different parts of the same sustainment problem. Drawings, specifications and manufacturing information help define a component or process; retained equipment can preserve the practical means to perform certain work. Neither automatically recreates the full industrial network of people, suppliers and facilities behind serial production.

Boeing delivered 14 Super Hornets in 2025 and another five during the first half of 2026. Northrop Grumman has delivered its final batch of structural production parts for the aircraft, another indication that the manufacturing network is already contracting. No additional Super Hornet orders are expected, although the status of undelivered aircraft for Kuwait remains unclear.

A successor does not eliminate the support burden

The Navy has separately selected Boeing to develop its next-generation carrier fighter, with first production aircraft expected in the 2030s. That program does not make the shutdown decisions less important. The existing Super Hornet fleet is expected to remain in service into the 2040s and possibly beyond, creating years in which new-aircraft development and legacy-fleet support must proceed in parallel.

The final production delivery will therefore mark only one boundary. The more consequential transition lasts until the Navy knows which tools, records and technical resources must remain available for aircraft that will keep flying long after their assembly line is gone.

By David Whitaker — Associate editor for AMI’s aerospace and drone systems desk, translating flight systems, aircraft programs, spaceflight, and UAV developments into accessible technical stories.