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US contractor buys Australian Hornets


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36 minutes ago, Slartibartfast said:

"Australian retired F/A-18A/B Hornet fighter aircraft will be used to provide training services to the United States Air Force..."

 

Say what?


The company provides Aggressors to the USAF.

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I doubt it will work.

ATAC recently lost a bid for Adversary training services where they proposed F-16 (the AM version).

Their bid was way more expensive than the Tac Air's one (w/ modernised and improved F-5).

 

If F-16 is too expensive to operate, I doubt F-18 could be a better solution.

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11 hours ago, shion said:

I doubt it will work.

ATAC recently lost a bid for Adversary training services where they proposed F-16 (the AM version).

Their bid was way more expensive than the Tac Air's one (w/ modernised and improved F-5).

 

If F-16 is too expensive to operate, I doubt F-18 could be a better solution.

That was for a navy contract. The Air Force one is way way bigger and includes, I believe, seven companies provide a large amount of red air services across several bases in the states. 

Edited by achterkirch
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/21/2020 at 9:18 AM, mawz said:

If you want some cool paint schemes on ex-Aussie Hornets just wait, the RCAF bought 25 of them and no doubt will do some sort of heritage theme around that.  

Nope.  Aussie Hornets are receiving the standard CF-18 paint scheme.

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8 hours ago, Colin K said:

Nope.  Aussie Hornets are receiving the standard CF-18 paint scheme.


And at some point no doubt one or more of them will get an annual demo scheme, which is what I was referring to.

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That depends on if the birds are used for demos. Airshow displays don't pay what they used to and usually if the US Government is footing the bill, the companies involved try not to rock the boat and do anything extra. So you might see a jet at an open house or two, but not a flying display.

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6 hours ago, Jay Chladek said:

That depends on if the birds are used for demos. Airshow displays don't pay what they used to and usually if the US Government is footing the bill, the companies involved try not to rock the boat and do anything extra. So you might see a jet at an open house or two, but not a flying display.


None of which applies to the ex-Australian RCAF birds, which will assuredly get used for a yearly demo scheme and were what Colin and I were discussing.

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2 hours ago, mawz said:


None of which applies to the ex-Australian RCAF birds, which will assuredly get used for a yearly demo scheme and were what Colin and I were discussing.

 

Assured by whom?

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2 hours ago, habu2 said:

 

Assured by whom?


The Demo birds are typically rotated through the higher-time single-seat airframes in RCAF inventory. Considering that the Aussie aircraft will be 1/4 of the operational single seat fleet, it's a given that they will end up as demo birds at some point.

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On 4/9/2020 at 12:05 PM, mawz said:


The Demo birds are typically rotated through the higher-time single-seat airframes in RCAF inventory. Considering that the Aussie aircraft will be 1/4 of the operational single seat fleet, it's a given that they will end up as demo birds at some point.

Demo jets are chosen based on fatigue life, not how many hours they have on them.  So they will try to take a jet with the most available fatigue life, as they really get beat up during the season.  Not sure why it's a big deal if one of the Aussie jets gets picked as the demo bird.  So far, they haven't been as reliable as some had hoped.

 

Having said that; if you're hoping for fully painted demo jets, don't bet on it.  Going to be tails only for the foreseeable future. 

Edited by Colin K
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