 The article said it wasn't clear exactly what the issue was but that it was identified during testing in a "carrier environment". That led to speculation that it may have to do with the stresses of catapult launches and arrested landings (If I'm no mistaken don't our Hornets use arrestor cables for landings at some short airfields?). The other possibility mentioned was that the location of the CFTs made certain routine maintenance tasks difficult to perform without removing the tanks, but again the article states "we don't know what the exact issues are". Also, if the major customer for the upgraded Super Hornets (the USN) is dropping the CFTs is there any guarantee that Boeing will continue to offer them to other, smaller customers? 