CAF Jets -- CF-18 Hornet

In the late 1970's Canada was in need of replace it's fleet of aging aircraft. The CF-100 Canuck, CF-101 Voodoos, CF-104 Starfighter and CF-5/CF-116 Freedom Fighter. The Candidates included the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle, Panavia Tornado, Dassault Mirage F1 (later replaced by the Mirage 2000), General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, the F/A-18 Hornet

CF/A – 188a Hornet
commonly known as CF-18 Hornet

• Manufacturer: McDonnell Douglas / Boeing
• First flight: 18 November 1978
• Introduced: 7 January 1983
• Number built: 138
• Unit cost: US$35 million (1977)
  

General characteristics

• Length: 56 ft 0 in (17.07 m)
• Wingspan: 40 ft 0 in with Sidewinders (12.31 m)
• Height: 15 ft 4 in (4.66 m)
• Wing area: 400 ft2 (37.16 m2)
• Loaded weight: 37150 lb (16850 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 51550 lb (23400 kg)
• Powerplant: 2 × General Electric F404-GE-400 turbofans, 16000 lbf (71.2 kN) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 1.8 (1127 mph, 1814 km/h) at 36100 ft (11000 m)
• Combat radius: 330 mi (290 nmi, 537 km) on hi-lo-lo-hi mission
• Ferry range: 2070 mi (1800 nmi, 3330 km) (range without ordnance)
• Service ceiling: 50000 ft (15000 m)
• Rate of climb: 50000 ft/min (254 m/s)
• Thrust/weight: 0.89

Armament

• Nine Weapon/ Store Stations (5 pylons: 1 Under Fuselage and 4 Wing Stations) (2 LAU 116 located on sides of fuselage: deploys AIM 7 Sparrow and AMRAAM Missiles)(2 LAU 7 located on the wing tips: Deploys AIM 9 Sidewinder Missile), carrying up to 13700 lb (6215 kg) of missiles, rockets, bombs, fuel tanks, and pods
• 1 × 20 mm M61A1 Vulcan internal gatling gun with 578 rounds, with a firing rate of 4000 or 6000 shots per minute

Missiles

• Air-to-air: AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-120 AMR AAM, AIM-7 Sparrow
• Air-to-ground: AGM-65 Maverick, CRV7 rockets
  
• Bombs: Paveway, Mk 82, Mk 83, Mk 84, GBU-10, -12, -16 and -24 laser guided bombs.
  

Avionics

• Raytheon AN/APG-73 radar
• BAE Systems AN/APX-111 IFF
• Rockwell Collins AN/ARC-210 RT-1556/ARC VHF/UHF Radio
• General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems AN/AYK-14 XN-8 mission computer
• Smiths Aerospace AN/AYQ-9 Stores Management System

Variants

• CF-18A: Single-seat fighter and ground attack aircraft.
• CF-18B: Two-seat training version.

Deployment

Canadian Forces Air Command has 72 CF-18As and 31 CF-18Bs in inventory

3 Wing CFB Bagotville, Quebec

• No. 425 Alouette Tactical Fighter Squadron

4 Wing CFB Cold Lake, Alberta

• No. 409 Nighthawks Tactical Fighter Squadron
• No. 410 Cougars Tactical Fighter (Operational Training) Squadron
• AETE (Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment)
  

Notable Losses

• As of March 2011 not one Jet was not lost in combat
• 14 August 1996: Aircraft crashes on takeoff from Iqaluit, Northwest Territories. Pilot safely ejects.
• 26 May 2003: CF-18 crashes on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range during the annual international training exercise MAPLE FLAG; pilot (Captain Kevin Naismith) killed.
• 19 June 2004: Aircraft from CFB Cold Lake lost when it was unable to stop while at Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Aircraft was salvaged and is back in service. Pilot ejected but was injured.
• 16 August 2005: Aircraft crashes during a training exercise near CFB Bagotville. Pilot safely ejects.
• 23 July 2010: A CF-18 (#188738) crashed while practicing an airshow routine at the Lethbridge County Airport. The pilot, Captain Brian Bews safely ejected.
• Here is a link to the July 23 crash Video
  
• 17 November 2010: Captain Darren Blakie ejected from his CF-18 on approach to CFB Cold Lake. The aircraft crashed 13 kilometres from the base.

NORAD and NOTA

As a member of NORAD and NATO, the CF-18 Hornet is being used as interceptors for North America air space. In 1995 a Tu-95 Bear-H bomber came to close to Canadian air space, CF-18 Hornets where scrammed from CFB Cold Lake to intercepted the Bomber.

After the attacks of 9/11 The CF-18 Hornet where task to secure the USA air space. They where also used to secure 2010 Winter Olympics, 2010 Winter Paralympics games and G8 summit.

CF-18 Hornet in Combat

In 1991, Canada sent 26 CF-18 Hornet to the Persian Gulf, based in Doha, Qatar, for the Gulf War, to remove the Iraq forces from Kuwait. Canadian pilots flew more than 5700 hrs, including 2700 combat missions. They flew in combat escort missions and ground attack missions. They flew 56 bombing sorties dropping 500lb (230kg) conventional bombs (dumb bombs). This was the first time since the Korean war that the Canadian military had participated in combat operations

In 1999, Canada sent 18 CF-18 Hornet Aviano, Italy. For the NATO peacekeepers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Canadian pilots flew 678 combat sorties. 120 as combat escort missions and 558 bombing strikes.

In 2011, Canada sent 6 CF-18 Hornet, to enforce the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 (2011) was adopted to enforce a Libyan no-fly zone, Canadian pilots are flying combat escort and bombing strikes, this mission is still going on.

The replacement of the CF-18 Hornet

Currently the Government is looking to replace the CF-18 Hornet by 2020, and so far the runner up is the CF-35a Lightning II

~~~~~~~~~ Part 2 CF-35a ~~~~~~~~~