This is the F-18 and she’s truly a work-horse that takes the hurt to its enemies.
Yesterday in Syria, a Russian built fighter jet dropped bombs on U.S. led coalition forces.
America’s response was immediate.
The Russian made Su-22 that dropped those bombs…
…was quickly engaged by a US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet. That same Su-22 was then shot down by our bad-a** Naval Aviators.
It was the first air-to-air battle and kill between two manned aircraft in almost two decades.
The last dogfight took place in 1999 during the Kosovo campaign in which a U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon shot down a Serbian MiG-29.
The older F-18s like the one above and below are also really mean weapons.
In fact, the new “Super Hornets” are over 4ft. longer which makes the old Hornets actually more agile.
Earlier today, U.S. Central Command officials confirmed,
“a Syrian regime SU-22 dropped bombs near SDF fighters south of Tabqah”.
“In accordance with rules of engagement and in collective self-defense of Coalition partnered forces, was immediately shot down by a U.S. F/A-18E Super Hornet”.
But leave it to Russia’s defense ministry to make the following bold claim:
“Russia will treat US-led coalition planes in Syria, west of the Euphrates, as targets.”
Russia’s defense ministry then said they will suspending coordination with the United States in Syria over so-called “de-confliction zones”.
The newer Super Hornets are bigger but they can hold more fuel.
This means that they don’t have to refuel as often.
Allowing them to stay in the air…
…and when it’s target time, they make that target go to sleep.
The F/A-18E/F Super Hornets can pack a vast array of weapons and configurations for armament.
Starting with the last case yet close-and-personal weapon; its gun.
It carries 412 rounds for a 20mm M61A2 Vulcan (Gatling) rotary cannon that is mounted to the aircraft’s nose.
Under its wings and fuselage (body of the airframe), there are a total of 11 hardpoints.
These are simply points where the aircraft can attache missiles and bombs (along with extra fuel and/or countermeasures such as flares).
-2× wingtips
-6× under-wing
-3× under-fuselage with a capacity of 17,750 lbs. external fuel and ordnance
Now let’s simplify it to weapons for an areal dogfight…Air-to-air missiles.
It can carry four AIM-9 Sidewinder
OR
four AIM-120 AMRAAM
With either of these configurations, it can also carry an additional two AIM-7 Sparrow or two AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles.
In addition, there are many configurations for both air-to-ground missiles and guided bombs.
Such as the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM). It’s a great one for taking out our enemy’s air-defense radars, so they don’t see us coming.
And then this aircraft turns back to land on a mobile piece of earth…other-wise known as an aircraft carrier.
The pilots land on a f*cking ship in the middle of the ocean.
As for the Su-22, it is an exported version of the Russian Sukhoi Su-17 “Fitter”.
It has a variable-sweep wing configuration that helped it set many speed world records back in the early 1970s.
The aircraft is designed to be both a fighter and bomber aircraft but as it’s configuration layout shows, its primary roll is to drop bombs.
It’s armament has 10 hardpoints but these are used for bombs and air-to-surface missiles (attacking targets on the ground or ships at sea).
In terms of air-to-air battle, the Su-22 has two 30mm cannons and two rails for air-to-air missiles.
It’s no surprise that an F-18 would win a dogfight with this old aircraft…but still, don’t test America.
We’re willing to put our adversaries in their place…landing with a parachute.
That goes for Russia’s modern Su-27s.
And there newest T-50s.
This is the F-18 and yeah, she’s ready to fight.
