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Hornet Attack Mission, QuickTime movie, 450Kb, 320x240.
| | McDonnell Douglas F/A-18A Hornet
F/A-18A Hornet: First flown in November 1978 for service from late 1983, the F/A-18A is a dual-role fighter and attack warplane designed to replace both the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II multi-role fighter and Vought A-7 Corsair II attack warplane in service with the US Navy and US Marine Corps. The Hornet is now recognized as an outstanding example of the dual-role warplane offering exceptional capabilities in each of its primary tasks without detriment to the other.
Yet the origins of the type lie not with its two main operators, but with the US Air Force and its desire to acquire a low-cost combat fighter. This stemmed from the service's realization in the late 1960s that the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, being designed as successor to the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, would offer capabilities far superior to those of current and indeed foreseeable Soviet fighters. It was conceivable, however, that this type of high-technology and high-cost solution to the threat of Soviet tactical fighters was not effective in military and financial terms, for the USSR could afford to build several of its adequate but very much cheaper warplanes for each sophisticated but very much more expensive American warplane, and this opened the possibility of small numbers of US aircraft being swamped by larger number of Soviet tactical fighters. | |  |
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