A Navy F/A-18F came home from Iran with ‘Sub Buster’ markings

On Oct. 1, a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet that flew from the USS Abraham Lincoln on combat missions in the Iran war was spotted returning home to California with an unusual kill marking. Above rows of other icons representing bombs the plane had dropped was a submarine split in half, embossed with the words “Sub Buster.”

The jet belongs to VFA-41, a Navy fighter squadron known as the “Black Aces,” based at Naval Air Station Lemoore, California. The squadron flies a modified version of the Navy’s F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter that specializes in bombing ground targets. Unlike traditional Super Hornet fighters, the plane flies with a weapons officer in a second seat. VFA-41 deployed with the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group over the last year, and took part in Operation Epic Fury, striking Iranian targets over several weeks.

Jeff Rojas, the photographer who captured the “Sub Buster” returning to Lemoore, spent hours in temperatures approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit waiting for the squadron’s aircraft to arrive back in California. He said relatively few people gathered near the base to watch them return. The squadron’s return comes as the USS Abraham Lincoln is expected to come home to San Diego this week after nearly a year deployed.

As for how a Super Hornet ended up with a submarine kill marking, Rojas had a theory.

“I assume that it was dry-docked and they dropped a laser-guided bomb,” Rojas said.

What the jet specifically did to earn the “Sub Buster” marking is unclear.

U.S. missiles destroyed several Iranian submarines that were docked in ports during early bombing, but neither the Navy nor U.S. Central Command has publicly confirmed that Navy bombers were involved.

The marking is also unusual because F/A-18Fs are not typically among the several Navy aircraft dedicated to sub hunting. While Super Hornets can strike targets at sea, detecting and tracking submarines, particularly when submerged, is normally handled by specialized aircraft such as P-8A Poseidons and MH-60R Seahawks.

The Navy referred questions on the marking to the U.S. Central Command, which did not respond to questions from Task & Purpose.

Rojas also had a photo of a ‘scoreboard’ the squadron appeared to keep of missiles and bombs used by the Black Cats in Epic Fury, with a tally of 426 munitions.

TWZ reported on Rojas’ photograph and the weapons it depicts on Friday

The tally lists 173 GBU-38s, 52 GBU-31(V)4s, 48 GBU-54s, 41 AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapons, 38 AIM-9X Sidewinders, 30 GBU-31(V)2s, 27 GBU-32s, 10 AGM-84K SLAM-ER missiles, six AIM-120 AMRAAMs and one GBU-12.

Several of the weapons listed can strike ships and other targets at sea. While a Super Hornet is not designed to hunt a submerged submarine, one caught on the surface or in port could potentially be attacked as a surface target.

The tally also shows 44 air-to-air missiles were fired, including 38 AIM-9Xs and six AIM-120s. Rojas said some of the aircraft he photographed returning to Lemoore carried markings representing drones.

But the tally does not identify which aircraft carried which weapons or what targets they struck. Neither the Navy nor CENTCOM has said whether the “Sub Buster” jet attacked an Iranian submarine itself or played some other role in its destruction.

For now, the broken submarine painted beneath the cockpit remains one of the few visible clues to what the jet did during the war.

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