Looks like there is much life left still in the SH-based airframes and the German acquisition might not be as short-term a fix as is often postulated:
"Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Boeing has received a $30 million U.S. Navy contract will demonstrate advanced missile technologies for use on F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter planes, the company said.
Boeing and the Navy's Air Warfare Center Weapons Division will develop the Supersonic Propulsion Enabled Advanced Ramjet, or SPEAR, flight demonstrator, with a first flight scheduled for 2022.
The contract comes after the Department of Defense sought information to help the Navy determine technical requirements of future carrier-based land and sea strike weapons systems, a Boeing statement on Tuesday said."
- the deliveries of SHs & Growlers will be well past 2022
... just that this SPEAR did not receive a number; must be well above
3
So the escorts for the deep strike force might not use just EW means against GBAD and opposing fighters, but also shoot the latter down from distance. What that distance might be, compared to e.g. Meteor gets to be an interesting question - might be a while before we will get to know?
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)