New Details On F/A-18 Super Hornet's Troubled IRST Pod

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More details have emerged about the problems the U.S. Navy is facing with its ill-starred podded Infrared Search And Track system, or IRST, an important capability planned for its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters. The latest issues to be highlighted come after TWZ previously reported on delays caused by production quality problems with the system and a Pentagon assessment of 'significant reliability problems during operational testing,' which emerged earlier this year.
The latest status update on the ASG-34A(V)1 IRST pod is provided in the Weapon Systems Annual Assessment that was published today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The centerline-mounted IRST pod is intended to provide the F/A-18E/F with a long-wave infrared sensor — the Lockheed Martin-developed IRST21 — that can search, detect, and track airborne targets. Very importantly, it is an ideal tool for detecting stealthy targets, which are proliferating. The IRST sensor assembly is installed in the front portion of a redesigned FPU-13/A centerline fuel tank. According to the GAO, each pod costs $16.6 million. For the full background on the pod, you can read our interview with the Super Hornet program manager responsible for it, back in 2020, here.
The GAO report notes that, although the IRST pod achieved initial capability on schedule in November 2024, including delivery of the first lot of low-rate initial production pods, a full-rate production decision has been delayed.
At one point, a determination on full-rate production was planned for January 2025, but this was missed 'due to delays incurred during flight testing.' As a result, the program has now breached its baseline schedule for the second time in three years.
'IRST officials told us that operational tests were delayed by two months due to software defects that caused IRST pods to falsely report overheating,' the GAO notes.
Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) officials told the GAO that the problem 'was relatively easy to fix and would likely have been addressed during developmental testing had the program allocated more time for that testing.'
Thanks to those operational testing delays, the publication of the DOT&E report that informs the full-rate decision production slipped until March 2025. A corresponding decision is now expected sometime this month.
Until then, the program is somewhat in limbo, although it has achieved some good results, notably demonstrating 'capability at tactically significant ranges during operational testing.'
This has been tempered, however, by how often the pods failed during that same testing.
DOT&E officials told the GAO that the pods were 'extremely unreliable.' While we previously knew of issues with reliability, today's report confirms just how bad these are. Although 'the program improved pod reliability as it made software updates, [it] only managed to achieve 14 hours mean time between operational mission failures — short of the 40 hours required.'
Not surprisingly, the DOT&E determined that deploying the IRST pods without improving their reliability would transfer risk to the Navy's fleet.
Of course, this is bad news for the Navy, and for the F/A-18E/F community specifically, with IRST sensors — which can detect and track objects from a distance and in environments where radar may be ineffective — is increasingly seen as a vital air combat tool.
Seemingly ever since it was first flown on a Super Hornet in late 2019, the IRST pod has faced issues.
A previous GAO report, in 2023, noted that 'between 20 and 30 percent of the manufactured components [in the IRST pod] failed to meet performance specifications due to microelectronics issues.' These problems persisted more than four years after limited manufacturing had begun and served to delay the launch of developmental and operational testing.
The same 2023 report also described how 'staffing challenges' at a critical software development contractor were leading to holdups in the program.
Then came a DOT&E report, which looked at the results of tests involving Infrared Optimized Configuration (IROC) pods, described as 'operationally equivalent' but designated for flight test. IROC pods were used for operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) between April and September 2024.
This report noted that 'operational test events were adversely affected by IRST Block II system reliability failures' and concluded that the pod 'demonstrated significant reliability problems.'
'Throughout the test period, IRST Block II suffered from hardware and software deficiencies, which required the aircrew to restart the pod multiple times,' the DOT&E report said. 'Troubleshooting and repair often exceeded the abilities of Navy maintenance crews and required assistance from Lockheed Martin.'
In the meantime, however, earlier iterations of the pod have already been deployed on operations, carried by Super Hornets in the Middle East, with photos emerging of this appearing in late 2020.
As the Navy awaits the decision on whether or not to pursue full-rate production, there's no doubt about the utility of an IRST pod — provided that it works.
The specific advantages of the IRST pod are something we have discussed before, including with the Super Hornet program manager:
'Very importantly, the IRST pod provides an entirely passive capability, relying exclusively on the infrared spectrum to detect and track airborne targets, including those at far beyond visual range. With no radio-frequency emissions, the target won't be alerted to the fact that they've been detected and are being tracked. At the same time, the IRST does not give away the location and presence of the host platform. This kind of sensor also provides a vital companion to the Super Hornet's AN/APG-79 radar, functions of which may well be compromised in a heavy electronic attack or radar-denied environment.'
Meanwhile, similar kinds of sensors have been found on fighters operated by potential adversaries for decades.
China and Russia operate tactical fighters such as the Su-35 and Su-30 Flanker series that incorporate IRST sensors as standard. In Western Europe, the Eurofighter Typhoon and Saab Gripen E, for example, also offer them.
Closer to home, the U.S. Air Force has already put equivalent sensors on its F-15Cs and F-16Cs, making the delays to the Navy's program all the more puzzling. On the other hand, we don't know exactly how reliable the Air Force's IRST pods are, and we do know that there are substantial differences between the Air Force and Navy versions, although they both use IRST21 as a base sensor.Still, the fact that a functioning IRST capability can be integrated on even older platforms without too much difficulty is also evidenced in the contractor-operated adversary community, which is increasingly flying fast jets with IRST sensors to better replicate potential threat aircraft. On the other hand, it should be recalled that not all IRST sensors offer the same level of capabilities, with significant differences also in terms of depth of integration and fusion between different types and aircraft, especially over time. This applies especially to the higher-end IRST pod for the Super Hornet and some of the cheaper off-the-shelf options that are now available.
Threat aircraft with IRST capabilities continue to proliferate, but so do the kinds of threat platforms for which a sensor of this kind would be most useful to counter.
China, especially, is making rapid developments in stealth technology and advanced electronic warfare, two areas that make the introduction of an IRST sensor all the more compelling. These kinds of infrared sensors are immune to radar-evading stealth technology and are not affected by electromagnetic jamming and other electronic attacks.
For Navy Super Hornets, a fully functional ISRT pod would help to detect and target advanced Chinese platforms in a future conflict in the Pacific theater.
At the same time, these pods can significantly boost the flight crew's situational air-to-air 'picture' in conjunction with more traditional sensors.
As noted previously, there has been some good news with the latest iteration of the IRST pod, specifically the fact that it has, in a test environment, demonstrated that it can detect targets at long ranges. Furthermore, it can translate this data into stable system tracks that would be suitable for weapons employment.
With its clear potential, it's certainly alarming for the Navy that it is still being kept waiting for the vital capabilities promised by the IRST pod.
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