McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet

The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a american supersonic multirole jet made to replace the A-6 Intruder and the A-7 Corsair in the attack role and the F-14 Tomcat in the fighter role, being criticized in the last role, the F-14 Tomcat was only replaced in 2008 by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet an improved version of the F/A-18.

Origin
The F/A-18 Hornet was designed from the YF-17 Cobra. The Cobra was Northrup's entry into the US Air Force's Lightweight Fighter Program. However, the F-16 Fighting Falcon was chosen over the Cobra mostly for the cost of two engines rather than one. The Navy, nevertheless, liked the Cobra's design, and wanted a carrier capable fighter based off of the YF-17. The result was the F/A-18 Hornet.

Description
The F/A-18C Hornet is a single-seat, carrier-capable, multirole strike fighter. When the Hornet was first being built, it was originally supposed to be two aircraft: the F-18 Hornet, a fighter, and the A-18 Hornet, an attacker. The term F/A-18 was used to refer to both at the same time. However, the designers later decided to combine the two into one aircraft that could perform both roles, and the name F/A-18 stuck.

With it's entry into service with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, the F/A-18C has replaced older, single role machines like the A-4 Skyhawk, A-7E Corsair II, and F-4 Phantom II. The F/A-18's combat debut was over Libya in 1986 during Operation El Dorado Canyon, later during Operation Desert Storm the F/A-18C performed round-the-clock day and night sorties with great success, despite the loss of two F/A-18s. U.S. Navy[[ and Marine Corps Hornets have been continuously used in [[Operation Southern Watch and in the Bosnia and Kosovo campaigns in the 1990s. Hornets and the newest models, the Super Hornets, have been used in Operation Enduring Freedom and in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The F/A-18C and twin-seat D models are the result of a block upgrade in 1987 incorporating upgraded radar, avionics, and the capacity to carry new missiles such as the AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile and AGM-65 Maverick and AGM-84 Harpoon air-to-surface missiles.

Other upgrades include the Martin-Baker NACES (Navy Aircrew Common Ejection Seat), and a self-protection jammer. A synthetic aperture ground mapping radar enables the pilot to locate targets in poor visibility conditions. C and D models delivered since 1989 also include an improved night attack capability, consisting of the Hughes AN/AAR-50 thermal navigation pod, the Loral AN/AAS-38 Night Hawk FLIR (forward looking infrared array) targeting pod, night vision goggles, and two full-color (previously monochrome) MFDs and a color moving map.

General Characteristics

 * Crew: F/A-18C: 1, F/A-18D: 2 (pilot and weapons system officer)
 * Length: 56 ft (17.1 m)
 * Wingspan: 40 ft (12.3 m)
 * Height: 15 ft 4 in (4.7 m)
 * Wing area: 400 ft² (38 m²)
 * Airfoil: NACA 65A005 mod root, 65A003.5 mod tip
 * Empty weight: 23,000 lb (10,400 kg)
 * Loaded weight: 36,970 lb (16,770 kg)
 * Max takeoff weight: 51,900 lb (23,500 kg)
 * Powerplant: 2× General Electric F404-GE-402 turbofan
 * Dry thrust: 11,000 lbf (48.9 kN) each
 * Thrust with afterburner: 17,750 lbf (79.2 kN) each

Performance

 * Maximum speed: Mach 1.8 (1,190 mph, 1,915 km/h) at 40,000 ft (12,190 m)
 * Range: 1,089 nmi (1,250 miles, 2,000 km) with only two AIM-9s
 * Combat radius: 400 nmi (460 mi, 740 km) on air-air mission
 * Ferry range: 1,800 nmi (2,070 mi, 3,330 km)
 * Service ceiling: 50,000 ft (15,240 m)
 * Rate of climb: 50,000 ft/min (254 m/s)
 * Wing loading: 93 lb/ft² (454 kg/m²)
 * Thrust/weight: 0.96

Armament

 * Guns: 1× 20 mm (0.787 in) M61 Vulcan nose mounted 6-barreled gatling cannon, 578 rounds
 * Hardpoints: 9 total: 2× wingtips missile launch rail, 4× under-wing, and 3× under-fuselage with a capacity of 13,700 lb (6,215 kg) external fuel and ordnance
 * Rockets:
 * 2.75 inches (70mm) Hydra 70 rockets
 * 5 in (127.0 mm) Zuni rockets
 * Missiles:
 * Air-to-air missiles:
 * 4× AIM-9 Sidewinder or 4× AIM-132 ASRAAM or 4× IRIS-T or 4× AIM-120 AMRAAM, and
 * 2× AIM-7 Sparrow or additional 2× AIM-120 AMRAAM
 * Air-to-surface missiles:
 * AGM-65 Maverick
 * Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM-ER)
 * AGM-88 HARM Anti-radiation missile (ARM)
 * AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW)
 * Taurus Missile
 * Anti-ship missile:
 * AGM-84 Harpoon
 * Bombs:
 * JDAM Precision-guided munition (PGMs)
 * Paveway series of Laser guided bombs
 * Mk 80 series of unguided iron bombs
 * CBU-87 Combined Effects Munition
 * CBU-89 gator mine
 * CBU-97
 * Mk 20 Rockeye II
 * B61 nuclear bombs
 * Others
 * SUU-42A/A Flares/Infrared decoys dispenser pod and chaff pod or
 * Electronic countermeasures (ECM) pod or
 * AN/AAS-38 Nite Hawk Targeting pods (US Navy only), to be replaced by AN/ASQ-228 ATFLIR or
 * LITENING targeting pod (USMC, Royal Australian Air Force, Spanish Air Force, and Finnish Air Force only) or
 * up to 3× 330 US gallons (1,200 l; 270 imp gal) Sargent Fletcher drop tanks for ferry flight or extended range/loitering time.

Avionics

 * Hughes APG-73 radar
 * ROVER (Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver) antenna for use by US Navy's F/A-18C strike fighter squadrons
 * Inertial navigation system
 * GPS
 * Two mission computers
 * HUD cockpit dislay
 * Very High Frequency omni-directional landing system
 * Multiple-functioning Cathode ray tube display

Related Development

 * Northrop YF-17 Cobra
 * McDonnell Douglas F/A-18E/F Super Hornet
 * Boeing EA-18G Growler

Comparable Aircraft

 * General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon
 * Mikoyan MiG-29K Fulcrum-D
 * Saab JAS-39 Gripen
 * Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightining II
 * Dassault Rafale