F/A-18C Hornet Tribute

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Hello, just some minor correction:

First flight was in late 1978; roughly 40 years ago.

Introduction at operational service was in 1983; 36 years ago... not 50.

Oops, lol yes you are right. Thank you

Also please note the C/D variant did not come out until 1987 I believe. Thank you for acknowledging their retirement!

Yes I know, I stated that in my narration, just a general tribute for the a-d hornet since the first design came out with yf-17. Just celebrating the mother ship lol and of course, it was my favorite aircraft after the tomcat retired.

:thumbup:

Oh and yeah the first flight was 1978 but it was named in the Hornet in 1977

Retired?

Canada will use them until we run out of duct tape. Very good hand-me-downs.

Lmao, that's funny. But yeah sadly. The A-D Hornet's are retired.

The A-D Hornet's are retired.

From US service, one would assume...

It's a BIG world out there!

Still very active here in Australia. We have F/A -18 A/B's, F/A-18 F and EA-18 G in service. The A/B's will retire when we get F-35 A's.

Marines fly them :thumbup:

Yes they do, I think they plan to completely phase them out by 2030 though:/

That's awesome, I wish the us navy didn't retire them yet. I still wish they flew the tomcat lol. Does Australia fly any of those?

Us navy retired the last of them, it was already announced back in 2018 that the last navy legacy hornet squadron was soon to finish transition to the super hornet, but the they are still in service in the USA (United states marine corps branch) as well as abroad with various export users.

Still very active here in Australia. We have F/A -18 A/B's, F/A-18 F and EA-18 G in service. The A/B's will retire when we get F-35 A's.

Really? I thought you guys retired the a's. After all we are buying at least 25 from you :P

I liked it. Good job. :)

Were you waving with the elevator?

Thank you sir, and yes lol

Good Tribute, however only the US Navy legacy hornets are retired.

Australia are definitely still flying their "Classics", I was at the 77SQN mission brief for Dawn Strike on the 31st of May. However, they're not technically A's/B's anymore. With the HUG program and recent avionics upgrades they're now basically the A++.

The RAAF just completed it's Air Warfare Instructors Course (AWIC), which was the last recognised course on the Classic Hornet. They are no longer training new pilots on the legacy model, rather sending them to the states to convert to the F35.

The Marines just updated their APG-73s to APG-79s so I'd assume they'll keep them flying for some time.

Canada is obviously flying legacy hornets and just received 2 of the RAAFs post Ex Red Flag 19-1 (another ex I was lucky enough to be at this year).

Malaysia still flies the D models, they had theirs in Australia for Ex Pitch Black last year

And Switzerland, Spain, Finland and Kuwait all still fly their legacy hornets. Most of them are looking to upgrade to the Super Hornet, but time will tell what happens there. Currently only the RAAF outside of the US fly the Super Hornets and the Growlers. From what I've heard Canada is still pushing for Supers and Growlers as well even with the RAAF hornet stop gap.

Anyway, you can expect that the legacy hornet will still grace the skies for a while yet.

Thank you and oh wow thanks for info, but no I know other countries still fly the legacy hornet, I was referring to the us navy. You guys are lucky lol

I've seen an RAAF F/A-18 A land on a local air field here. A 1600 metre runway. He had two goes at it and the first aborted landing he had to go full afterburner. Got an up close tour of it but couldn't touch. Was a good day that. Now days this beauty lurks in the hangar...

That's awesome man