India conducts carrier ski-jump trials for F/A18E/Fs

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F/A-18 Super Hornet Is Now Undergoing Ski Jump Launch Trials For The Indian Navy
The Boeing fighter jet is vying for an Indian Navy contract and that service only has aircraft carriers with ski jumps at present.
By Joseph TrevithickAugust 19, 2020
The War Zone
Boeing has been flying an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet off a ground-based ski jump at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. This is part of a demonstration effort for the Indian Navy to show that the aircraft can operate from short take-off but arrested recovery configured (STOBAR) aircraft carriers, such as the INS Vikramaditya and the future INS Vikrant.
Indian defense analyst Saurabh Joshi was among the first to reveal the flight testing in a series of tweets on Aug. 19, 2020. The Chicago-headquartered plane maker subsequently confirmed that this ski jump demonstration program is presently taking place at Patuxent River, though it is not clear when exactly it began. The naval air station has a ground-based ski jump that it used during testing of the short and vertical takeoff and landing capable F-35B variant of the Joint Strike Fighter.

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