Flying Hornets

The Hornets were an earlier example of a well-intentioned, failed attempt to help. The idea of Australia donating the fighters was proposed last March in The Australian Financial Review.

Two months later, news leaked that the US government was “favourably disposed” to the transfer of the planes, which started flying for the Royal Australian Air Force in 1984 and stopped in 2021.

Designed for aircraft carriers, the Hornets’ tough undercarriages were suited for Ukraine’s war-torn runways. They could land and take off in short distances too, which helped when missions sometimes were launched from highways.

But the Ukrainians had already opened talks with the US and Western European governments about receiving less-robust F-16 Fighting Falcons. Manufactured by a different company, retiring F-16s were plentiful in Europe. Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands were willing to hand over some of theirs. The Americans, Danes and Romanians offered training.

The Ukrainian Air Force feared being overwhelmed by two types of foreign fighters, each of which would require their own maintenance, ammunition and training infrastructure. It had decided against employing foreign pilots, requiring the laborious process of training Ukrainians who had only ever flown in Soviet cockpits.

Encouraged to make a formal request for the Hornets last year – a step that could have caused the Labor government embarrassment if rejected – a senior Ukrainian Air Force officer portrayed the 50-year-old planes as rubbish Australia needed disposing of.

“He called them ‘flying trash’,” the contractor said. “That basically killed the F/A-18 deal. Had he not done it they would have been flying over Ukraine now.”

Russia-Ukraine war: Ukraine to Australia: ‘We don’t want your flying trash’ (afr.com)

1. F16 도입하기로 논의중  우크라입장에서 16/18둘다 받으면 탄약/유지보수/교육에서 애로사항이 생길것같아 둘다 도입은 부담

2. F-18보다 중고 F-16은 유럽에 넘쳤음

3. 우크라 공군 장교는 50년 넘은 호주 F-18을 쓰레기라고 부름.