THE F/A-18 attack fighter.

What was originally designed as a relatively inexpensive lightweight fighter, the Hornet has evolved into middleweight fighter-bomber.

Engines

This plane is powered by 2 General Electric F404 engines developed specially for the F18. These engines are turbofans with a bypass ratio of 0.34. The bypass air is used to cool the engines. This engine develops 16,000 lb of thrust.

RADAR and SENSORS

The F18 carries the APG-65 coherent-pulse Doppler type radar. The Doppler effect allows the radar to differenciate between moving and stationary objects. This reduces ground clutter dramatically. Fo night operations the F/A-18 is equiped with a Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) and laser spot tracking pods. The laser can be used to highlight a target for another aircraft or for the parent aircraft.

WEAPONS

The F/A-18 is equiped with the standard M61A1 Vulcan 20mm 6 barrel cannon. This weapon is ,unusually , mounted under the nose in the center line. The F/A-18 also can carry the AIM-9 Sidewinder , AIM-7 Sparrow and the AIM-120 AMRAAM. It can also carry a large selection of ground attack weapons e.g 2000lb laser guided bombs and the HARM anti-Radiation missile. In the Anti-Ship role the harpoon missile can be used.

PERFORMANCE

The F/A-18 is capible of Mach 1.8+ above 36,000 FT and has an initial climb rate of 50,000 Ft per minute. This is roughly equal to the F-16.