Australia bids farewell to the Hornet Classic Warrior

November 29 marked the last day for the Boeing F / A-18A / B Hornet fighter aircraft in the service of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). The retirement of the ‘classic’ Hornet was commemorated at an event held at RAAF Williamtown, New South Wales, attended by Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton and Air Force Chief of Staff Air Marshall Mel Hupfeld. The day before, a Hornet made its last public appearance of its kind during the Wings over Illawarra Airshow.

The last seven classic Hornets departed from their base in Tindal in the Northern Territory to fly to Williamtown for the closing ceremony, performing flights at both bases. Group Captain Jason Easthope, Air Combat Group Chief of Staff, then flew the A21-02 on a single-screen display as a fitting end to the aircraft career of more than 35 years and 408,000 flight hours.

Australia chose the Hornet to replace its Dassault Mirage IIIO fighters, also examining types such as the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon. An order for 57 single-seater F / A-18As and 18 two-seater F / A-18Bs was placed in 1981. The first two arrived in disassembled state inside a Galaxy C-5 on June 6, 1984. They were followed by two other US-made aircraft performing a 15-hour trans-Pacific ferry flight on May 17, 1985. Subsequent aircraft were assembled in Australia by the Government Aircraft Factories in Victoria, with test flights being performed in Avalon.

The Hornet entered service with 2 Operational Conversion Units in Williamtown, which began pilot training in August 1985. A year later, the first front-line unit – Nr. Squadron 3 – formed on the same base, where team no. 77 in June 1987. Both units were subsequently converted to the Lockheed Martin F-35A.

The third Hornet unit was Team No. 75, which had previously operated the Mirage from Butterworth in Malaysia before retreating to Australia to fly from Darwin. In May 1988, after converting to F / A-18, he relocated to the newly built Tindal Airport. It will now be converted to the F-35 and will remain at its base in the Northern Territory.

In 1999 the fleet entered a three-phase Hornet Improvement (HUG) program, which introduced numerous improvements, such as APG-73 radar, Helmet-mounted Joint Cueing System, Link 16 data link, Litening targeting pod and MBDA ASRAAM missiles that replaced the AIM-9 Sidewinder. All aircraft underwent structural improvement work, including 10 aircraft that received new central section of the pipeline.

The Australian Hornets were stationed in 2001 in Diego Garcia in the British Indian Ocean Territory to defend the base, which was a major bombing base for operations in Afghanistan in Operation Enduring Freedom. Australia called its contribution to Operation Slipper. RAAF Hornets take action for the first time during Operation Falconer, the country’s contribution to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, flying from Al Udeid to Qatar in close air support and high-value escort missions.

Between March 2015 and May 2017 the Australian Hornets returned to the Middle East as part of Operation Okra for operations against Daesh forces in Iraq and Syria. During the course of 1,937 missions, the six aircraft from Squadron no. 75 flew more than 14,780 flight hours and delivered about 1,600 rounds of ammunition. Good service was recorded, despite the age of the aircraft.

Australia aims to retain a number of retired aircraft frames for museum exhibits, while 25 were sold in Canada, which aims to put 18 in service to fill a gap in fighter aircraft capability. The first was delivered in February 2019 and the former Australian aircraft will undergo a modernization program that adds APG-79 AESA radar before entering service. The other seven will be used for reserves and as trainers for repairing battle damage.

In March 2020 it was announced that the remaining Australian aircraft would be sold to Air USA for civilian-contracted aggressor training tasks, although this agreement has not been finalized.