Australia's shortlist for the Mirage replacement had only two candidates in November 1979. the General Dynamics F-16 and the McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. On 20 October 1981, the Hornet was selected. It was decided to buy 75 Hornets in November 1981. This order was for 57 single-seat F/A-18As (serialled A21-1 to A21-57) and 18 two-seat F/A-18Bs (A21-101 to A21-118). The Hornet gave the RAAF several firsts, including a pulse-doppler look-down radar with a shoot-down capability, an inertial navigation system and a head-up display. The Australian Hornet program was for the first two aircraft to be entirely assembled by McDonnell-Douglas (McAir) in the USA with the remaining 73 to be assembled by the Government Aircraft Factories (GAF) in Victoria. A21-103 made its first flight at Avalon on 26 February 1985, reached a speed of Mach 1.6 at an altitude of 40,000 ft. This aircraft was delivered to 2OCU at Williamtown on 17 May 1985. The first 14 aircraft were all allocated to 2OCU to enable the start of Hornet training. The F/A-18 simulator was installed later that year, and on 25 November the first single-seater (A21-1) was accepted. The first operational Hornet unit was No 3 Sqn, at Williamtown. The next unit to re-equip was No 77 Sqn at Williamtown in May 1987.The final RAAF Hornet unit was No 75 Sqn which commenced operations at RAAF Tindal in September 1988. On 15 December 1988, the last RAAF dual-seat Hornet, A21-118, was delivered. The last Hornet, single-seater A21-57, was delivered on 12 May 1990. RAAF Hornets maintain a presence for the five-power Integrated Air Defence System (IADS) at Butterworth with deployments several times a year. Since 2001, RAAF F/A-18 Hornets have also been deployed to Diego Garcia and the Middle East Area of Operations , and have also flown aerial patrols within Australia as a security force during the Commonwealth Heads of Government conference and the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

General characteristics

Performance

Armament