F-18 Hornet showing age

Delays in F-35 operation forcing Navy and Marines to stretch its fighter fleet beyond planned lifetime




Global F/A-18 Hornet Fleets: Keeping ‘Em Flying

The F/A-18 Hornet is the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet‘s
predecessor, with the first models introduced in the late 1970s as a spinoff of the USAF’s YF-17 lightweight fighter competitor. Hornets are currently flown by the US Marine Corps as their front-line fighter, by the US Navy as a second-tier fighter behind its larger F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets, and by 7 international customers: Australia, Canada, Finland,
Kuwait, Malaysia, Spain, and Switzerland. The USA’s aircraft were expected to have a service life of 20 years, but that was based on 100 carrier landings per year. The US Navy and Marines have been rather busy during the Hornets’ service life, and so the planes are wearing out faster.


This is forcing the USA to take a number of steps in order to keep their Hornets airworthy: replacing center barrel sections, re-opening production lines, and more. Some of these efforts will also be offered to allied air forces, who have their own refurbishment and upgrade programs.

Management of Australia’s Air Combat Capability—F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet Fleet Upgrades and Sustainment

Overall conclusion
12. The RAAF F/A-18A/B Hornet air combat fleet is now in a period of transition similar to the transition from the Canberra bomber fleet to the F-111 fleet in the early 1970s, or from the Mirage fighter fleet to the Hornet fleet in the mid-1980s. The Hornet fleet has already been in operational service for up to 27 years, while the F-35A JSF aircraft, which is to eventually replace both the F/A-18A/B Hornet and F/A-18F Super Hornet fleets, is not currently expected to enter Full-Rate Production until 2019, by which time the oldest RAAF F/A-18 would have been in service for 34 years. Assessing the capability upgrade and sustainment status of both F/A-18 fleets is therefore fundamental to understanding the risks of an air combat capability gap occurring between the withdrawal from service of Australia’s F/A-18A/B fleet and the entry into service with the RAAF of the F-35s. Accordingly, this audit focused on that key issue.

13. This audit report draws attention to the risks inherent in the management of aged combat aircraft. These risks are wide-ranging and require ongoing, prudent management if the Tactical Fighter SPO and the RAAF’s Air Combat Group (ACG) are to ensure that the F/A-18A/B Hornet fleet remains capable of satisfying approved operational commitments, while it undergoes aircraft and weapons systems upgrades, airframe structural refurbishments, periodic Deeper Maintenance and Operational (flight-line) Maintenance.

 Current Readiness & Enterprise Airspeed Newsletter.pdf

When the F/A-18 was first introduced, it quickly gained a reputation for reliability and ease of maintenance. As of July 2012, almost 30 years later, 76 percent of Marine Hornets are beyond their original design service life of 6,000 flight hours, and like any other aging platform, require a significant amount of extra work [and more spare parts] to maintain combat serviceability. With at least another decade of service required from Marine Hornets before the F-35B transition is complete, it is not enough to simply continue flying; it is imperative to maintain a common capability baseline that ensures that Marine Hornets remain both available and combat effective.

Published on Feb 26, 2014

NAVAIR employs Verisurf software to reverse engineer and inspect F-18 parts to extend the life of the aircraft. Mcdonnel Douglas drawings not fully captured by Boeing, requiring reverse engineering of parts

Navy Aging F-18 Hornet fleet readiness suffers[originally titled "Navy Grounds Top Guns"]

The F/A-18s needs spare parts and in too many cases they’re being taken from brand new jets. This is a risk to national security and pilots’ lives.

The U.S. Navy’s elite cadre of fighter pilots—made famous by Top Gun—are not flying nearly often as they would like. Instead, many of the Navy’s elite Boeing F/A-18 Hornet strike fighter squadrons are sitting on the ground with only two or three flyable jets available. The rest of the jets are awaiting maintenance for want of critical spare parts—and some of those parts are being cannibalized from brand new jets in an increasingly vain attempt to keep squadrons flying.