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Aviation Week has an update on the U.S. Navy's effort to upgrade the Super Hornet with more diverse sensors and weapons.
The U.S. Navy expects to award contracts soon for a longer-range version of the AIM-9X Sidewinder, known as Block III. Not only will it be a major change to the AIM-9X—retaining only the seeker, optical target detector (laser fuze) and data link of the Block II weapon—but its development is starting before the Block II has finished operational tests.
The Block III is associated with the Navy's effort to fit the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet with a Lockheed Martin infra-red search and track (IRST) system. The two systems are complementary, improving the ability of Navy fighters to operate in what a Boeing engineer calls an “RF (radio frequency)-denied environment” that will challenge X-band systems such as fighter radars and the seeker of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (Amraam).
The Super Hornet IRST mates a new processor to the sensor of the AAS-42, which was developed in the 1980s for the Grumman F-14D. It has already been supplied to export F-15 operators, including South Korea and Singapore, and is under contract for Saudi Arabia's new and upgraded F-15s.
As an aside, it appears that USAF is concerned about IRST and (I would suspect how it can detect the F-22) as seen with this recent photo of an F-16 aggressor aircraft carrying a AAS-42.
What is old and forgotten (for the U.S.) is new again, with newer technology helping out.
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