finland does facelift to F-18 fleet

jouni

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http://archive.defensenews.com/arti...sing-Secondhand-Equipment-Protect-Core-Budget

Midlife update of Hornets forces Finland to depend on secondhand buying on renewing its tank brigades and other military procurement.

Hornets were originally bought without air to ground capabilities due to foreign policy reasons. Now this will be added to keep those birds flying until 2030.

[video]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cA6fa7VOAUo[/video]


http://fr.viadeo.com/fr/groups/deta...ction=messageDetail&messageId=002o63qef4sdg70


The Finnish Air Force (Suomen Ilmavoimat) ordered 64 F-18C/Ds (57 C models, seven D models) with delivery started on 7 June 1995. The Hornet replaced the MiG-21bis and Saab 35 Draken in Finnish service. The Finnish Hornets were initially to be used only for air defense, hence the F-18 designation. The F-18C includes the ASPJ (Airborne-Self-Protection-Jammer) jamming pod ALQ-165.[44] The US Navy later included the ALQ-165 on their F/A-18E/F Super Hornet procurement.

One fighter was destroyed in a mid-air collision in 2001. A damaged F-18C was rebuilt into a F-18D. To do so, a forward section of a Canadian CF-18B was purchased and incorporated. The modified fighter crashed during a test flight in January 2010. The cause of the crash was determined to be due to a faulty tailplane servo cylinder.

Finland is upgrading its fleet of F-18s with new avionics, including helmet mounted sights (HMS), new cockpit displays, sensors and standard NATO data link. Several of the 63 Hornets remaining are going to be fitted to carry air-to-ground ordnance such as the AGM-158 JASSM, in effect returning to the original F/A-18 multi-role configuration. The upgrade includes also the procurement and integration of new AIM-9X Sidewinder and AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles. This Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) is estimated to cost between €1–1.6 billion and work is scheduled to be finished by 2016. After the upgrades the aircraft are to remain in active service until 2020–2025
 
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salute

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US dumps this old tech to european countries while they go on f-22,f-35,

finland can also buy second hand upgraded f-16 instead.
 

Zebra

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US dumps this old tech to european countries while they go on f-22,f-35,

finland can also buy second hand upgraded f-16 instead.
Sir, don't cry in the name of US.

Already they stopped producing Raptor , since 2011.

Where as US navy will get newly made (at least 16) , F-18 aircrafts in near future.
 

Zebra

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Finland will buy 30's or 40's of Super Hornets instead for excastly 50.
How was planned in beginning.

To replace C/D with E/F.
Between 2025-2030.
F-18 Super Hornets.
US may have many of surplus aircrafts in reserve stock.

I guess.
 

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