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Post by mcmaster on Mar 5, 2020 23:04:12 GMT 12
Interesting these a/c are going to a similar afterlife as the kiwi A4s. Also hope some can still find their way to museums in Aus. www.flightglobal.com/canberra-to-sell-remaining-classic-hornets-to-us-training-firm/137093.articleair-usa.com/Canberra plans to sell 46 Boeing F/A-18 A/B “Classic” Hornets to Air USA, a firm that provides tactical airpower training services to the US military and international customers. The aircraft are being retired as Canberra takes delivery of up to 72 Lockheed Martin F-35As, which are replacing the Hornet in Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) service. The Classic Hornet aircraft will be used to provide training services to the United States Air Force and will be prepared over the next three to four years,” says Melissa Price, minister for defence industry. Price gave no details about the pricing, but said that the work to prepare the jets for transfer to Air USA will provide 24 direct industry jobs at RAAF Williamtown. The announcement follows a previous 2019 deal to sell 25 Hornets to Canada for A$95 million ($62.9 million). This is intended to fulfill a capability gap while Ottawa conducts a competition for a new fighter. Under this deal, 18 aircraft will be used as combat assets, and seven for spare parts and testing. When the Canada deal was announced the RAAF operated 71 Hornets. The Air USA deal suggests that every single RAAF Hornet will eventually leave Australian soil. Cirium fleets data suggests that 52 single-seat F/A-18As remain in RAAF service with an average age of 32 years, while its 16 remaining two-seat F/A-18Bs have an average of 32.9 years. |
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Post by colford on Mar 6, 2020 8:43:54 GMT 12
The RAAF History & Heritage Program has already identified F/A-18 A/B airframes with significant RAAF history that will be retained for museum display. This includes examples for the Australian War Memorial, RAAF Museum, and relevant RAAF Base Heritage Centre(s). Examples for other Australian aviation museums would be subject to the usual request and approvals processes by the RAAF, Department of Defence and US Government (similar to what happened for the F-111 and P-3). So we will see a number of the RAAF's Classic Hornets retained in country for Museum display.
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Post by skyhawkdon on Mar 6, 2020 10:56:58 GMT 12
The Hornet will be a very expensive jet for a private civilian contractor to operate and maintain. That is why up until now these companies have tended to go for older 3rd generation jets. They are relatively cheap to operate which has been a big consideration for the US military in outsorcing this work. Having said that, the Aussie Hornets have an awesome capability in terms of their avionics (if the purchaser is allowed to have it all).
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 6, 2020 11:09:23 GMT 12
"But they're clapped out!"  |
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Post by skyhawkdon on Mar 6, 2020 12:29:56 GMT 12
Where is the vomit button! :+P
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Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 6, 2020 12:35:52 GMT 12
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Post by mcmaster on Mar 6, 2020 12:41:30 GMT 12
The Hornet will be a very expensive jet for a private civilian contractor to operate and maintain. That is why up until now these companies have tended to go for older 3rd generation jets. They are relatively cheap to operate which has been a big consideration for the US military in outsorcing this work. Having said that, the Aussie Hornets have an awesome capability in terms of their avionics (if the purchaser is allowed to have it all). Agree this purchase is interesting ie you'd think US Air would buy some of the ex USMC or USN Hornets - maybe they are more knackered than the RAAF birds. Draken now has Mirage F1's which I guess would cost similar to a Hornet to maintain? Plenty of Hornet spares in country. Shows too how the adversary training is now high end close to peer to peer. |
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Post by skyhawkdon on Mar 6, 2020 14:11:12 GMT 12
I'm guessing the Hornet would be twice as expensive to operate as the Mirage F-1 due to it being twin engined. Avionics capability and performance is similar (the Draken F-1s have modern avionics), but the Hornet would turn better and has the extra safety factor being twin engined. Will be intersting to see how long it takes to get State Dept approval for the transfer and then to get the jets operational in the US. Me thinks it will be a while...
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Post by mcmaster on Mar 6, 2020 15:34:00 GMT 12
Will take a while this end too. 3 sqn is still to get IOC on the F-35 so we can't release more classics from 77 sqn until that is bedded in. Also assume Canada will get first call on airframes for a while. 75 sqn in Tindal wont give up its Hornets for a while too.
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Post by ZacYates on Mar 9, 2020 8:53:34 GMT 12
I saw this news the other night when idly looking up the Hornet on Wikipedia while watching videos on Youtube of carrier operations. What an amazing capability for the aggressors! And a handy excuse for me to get another 1/72 Classic model in the future... The RAAF History & Heritage Program has already identified F/A-18 A/B airframes with significant RAAF history that will be retained for museum display. (...) So we will see a number of the RAAF's Classic Hornets retained in country for Museum display. I'm very pleased to read that, Col. I'd seen someone in an article online mention that the maths meant if Air USA got all 46 aircraft that meant none for museum display. I'm very, very glad they're mistaken! |
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Post by Calum on Mar 10, 2020 13:56:15 GMT 12
The Hornet will be a very expensive jet for a private civilian contractor to operate and maintain. That is why up until now these companies have tended to go for older 3rd generation jets. They are relatively cheap to operate which has been a big consideration for the US military in outsorcing this work. Having said that, the Aussie Hornets have an awesome capability in terms of their avionics (if the purchaser is allowed to have it all). Agree this purchase is interesting ie you'd think US Air would buy some of the ex USMC or USN Hornets - maybe they are more knackered than the RAAF birds. Draken now has Mirage F1's which I guess would cost similar to a Hornet to maintain? Plenty of Hornet spares in country. Shows too how the adversary training is now high end close to peer to peer. The USN /USMC A's are pretty worn out. After all most of them went out to the carriers.The RAAF aircraft haven't been so abused and some have had the centre barrel replaced. Also many of the USN/USMC ones wouldn't have gone through the updates the RAAF aircraft did. The USN just moved to the C model and only retained the A for reserve units . Also the better ones may have to be stored at AMRAC in case they are needed again if there is a major conflict. The hornet would still more expensive to operate that the Draken F1's and Cheetahs not the least because it has 2 engines. But they'd be more capable as well. IMHO they'd be the most capable gen 4 Ad Air platform on the civil register. As for high performance jets on the civil register, we still haven't seen confirmation of a civil F-16 ad air platform yet. Discovery Air was supposed to be getting some F-16A's from an unnamed middle east country but I've not seen anything concrete as yet. As for aircraft being retaining in Australia.. I'm sure the AVM and RAAF museums /heritage centres will get an example(s) but I'm not so sure museums like HARS/Fighterworld will now. I have heard they were promised airframes but when it comes to dollars and cents they may miss out. It's not like the F-111's where the alternative was that the aircraft would be destroyed if it didn't have a home to go to. Interesting times |
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Post by mcmaster on Mar 10, 2020 18:52:24 GMT 12
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Post by mcmaster on Apr 10, 2020 17:07:14 GMT 12
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