| The F/A-18 Hornet is flying
from the U.S. Navy's twelve aircraft carriers and from the air bases
of eight allied nations. The F/A-18 Hornet is a multi-mission strike fighter,
combining the capabilities of a fighter or interceptor with those of attack
aircraft or bomber. The original F/A-18A (single seat) and F/A-18B (dual
seat) became operational in 1983 replacing Navy and Marine Corps F-4s and
A-7s. It quickly became the battle group commander's mainstay because of
its capability, versatility and availability.
Reliability and ease of maintenance were emphasized in its design, and F/A-18s have consistently flown three times more hours without failure than other Navy tactical aircraft, while requiring half the maintenance time. The F/A-18 has a digital control-by-wire flight control system which provides excellent handling qualities, and allows pilots to learn to fly the airplane with relative ease. At the same time, this system provides exceptional maneuverability and allows the pilot to concentrate on operating the weapons system. A solid thrust-to-weight ratio and superior turn characteristics combined with energy sustainability, enable the F/A-18 to hold its own against any adversary. The power to maintain evasive action is what many pilots consider the Hornet's finest trait. In addition, the F/A-18 was also the Navy's first tactical jet aircraft to incorporate a digital, MUX bus architecture for the entire system's avionics suite. The benefit of this design feature is that the F/A-18 has been relatively easy to upgrade on a regular, affordable basis. The Hornet has been battle tested and has proved itself to be exactly what its designers intended: a highly reliable and versatile strike fighter. The F/A-18 played an important role in the 1986 strikes against Libya. Flying from USS CORAL SEA (CV 43), F/A-18s launched high-speed anti-radiation missiles (HARMs) against Libyan air defense radars and missile sites, effectively silencing them during the attacks on Benghazi facilities. On the first day of Operation Desert Storm, two F/A-18s, each carrying four 2,000 lb. bombs, shot down two Iraqi MiGs and then proceeded to deliver their bombs on target. Throughout the Gulf War, squadrons of U.S. Navy, Marine and Canadian F/A-18s operated around the clock, setting records daily in reliability, survivability and ton-miles of ordnance delivered. The F/A-18 has proven to be an ideal component of the carrier based tactical aviation equation over its 15 years of operational experience. The only F/A-18 characteristic found to be marginally adequate by battle group commanders, outside experts, and even the men who fly the Hornet, is its range when flown on certain strike mission profiles. As the F/A-18C/D empty weight
increased the aircraft were returning to the carrier with less than optimal
reserve fuel and/or unexpended weapons. The additional range and "bring
back" is not as essential to shore based operations. F/A-18A/B/C/D aircraft
will fly for years with the U.S. Marine Corps and eight international customers:
Australia, Canada, Finland, Kuwait, Malaysia, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand.
Although the F/A-18C/D's future growth is now limited, it will also continue
to fill a critical role in the U.S. Navy's carrier battle group for many
years to come and will be an excellent complement to the larger, longer
range, more capable F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
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Janes At the Controlsá is a new series providing a 'hands-on' briefing of what it is like to fly and fight in modern combat aircraft. By following a hypothetical mission set sometime in the near future, the full capabilities of the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 will be revealed. With its APG-65 multimode radar and infra-red search and tracking sensor, the Hornet can operate by day or by night over the harshest environment of all: the ocean. It can carry a formidable ordinance load including Harpoon anti-ship missiles and SLAM, it's equivalent for land targets. In this scenario the Hornets will use lasar guided bombs for pinpoint precision against enemy missile craft lurking among neutral shipping. |
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This book provides a developmental history of the F-18 Hornet from drawing board to its results in Desert Storm. It is the story of a multi-billion-dollar aircraft-design war between those military officers who insist that America's interests will be protected best by sophisticated aircraft, even if America can afford fewer of them, and a group known as the "Fighter Mafia," who claim that larger numbers have always won in warfare and that for equal dollars America can only produce greater numbers if each one is less sophisticated. He shows that by picking the YF-17 - and renaming the F-17 as the F-18 - over the clearly superior YF-16, the Navy antagonized the Air Force, Congress, and its own F-14 community, and sparked a major legal battle. Undeterred, the Navy took the light, cheap YF-17 and loaded it with technology and weight, which produced an F-18 that has less maneuverability, less acceleration, a range no better than the 1952-vintage A-4, and costs almost three times as much as the F-16. From its first flight in 1978, the F-18 performance continued to degrade. Nevertheless, in 1992 the Navy asked for additional money to modify the F-18 as the F-18E/F. This request was in reality funding for a brand-new |
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Other than David Isby's "How To Fly And Fight In The F/A-18 Hornet", reference books about the US Navy's leading fighter/bomber are hard to find. Hopefully 'F-18 Hornet' by Herman Sixma and Theo Van Geffen will be around a bit longer, or will be replaced with a better edition (preferably in hardback). |
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