Hornet upgrades completed

Our new-look CF-18s (via Spotlight on Military News and International Affairs):

Upgraded CF-18: Transforming the way Canada fights in the air [if we ever do]

Paul Umrysh, a fighter pilot who has flown the fully modernized jet. Credit: DND.

Major Daniel Dionne, a CF-18 test pilot. Photo Credit: Sgt Alain Martineau.

Although the exterior airframe of the aircraft remains virtually the same, the inner workings of the CF-18 have been completed overhauled. Photo Credit: Cpl Jax Kennedy.

It was 30 years ago on April 16, 1980 that Canada first signed the contract to buy what was then a state-of-the-art fighter jet, the CF-18 Hornet. Now, almost 30 years later, the Department of National Defence is poised to employ a completely modernized CF-18 whenever and wherever it is needed.

Although the exterior airframe, or “skin” of the aircraft remains virtually the same, the inner workings of the jet have been completed overhauled, giving pilots a broader range of defensive and offensive tools to more accurately execute even the toughest, most aggressive aerial combat missions.

After a nine-year, two-phased project that installed jam-resistant radios, new mission computers (replacing the original Commodore 64-era computers), global positioning systems, data link system, helmet cueing system, colour displays, upgraded countermeasures dispensers and a new cockpit video recorder, the CF-18 can now hold its own among any allied fighter forces in the world today.

Deficiencies corrected

Even Major Daniel Dionne, a CF-18 pilot who flew combat missions over Kosovo in 1999 as part of Operation Allied Force, says the CF-18 had deficiencies back then which the modernization has more than corrected.

“There is a world of difference between the previous CF-18 that I flew in Kosovo and the one we just accepted on March 25,” Maj Dionne said speaking inside at L-3 MAS facility at Mirabel, Que. where he has been posted worked for the past year and a half as a modernization test pilot on behalf of the Department of National Defence. L-3 MAS was contracted by Boeing to complete the nine-year modernization on behalf of DND.

“The avionics, the armament systems have all been upgraded to the point where we are now flying an advanced fourth generation fighter. We can go anywhere in the world and do the job with the technology we have now. We have the edge. I would be willing to fly in any operation in the world right now with this aircraft.”

Better situational awareness

In the words of Major Paul Umrysh, a fighter pilot who has flown the fully modernized jet as commanding officer of the CF-18 Fighter Standards Evaluation Team at 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alta., “the phase two modernized jet does everything the CF-18 did before, however, it does it a lot better by providing a lot more situational awareness for pilots.”

What that means, for example, is that Canadian fighter pilots can now identify friendly or unfriendly fire with greater accuracy thereby allowing them to counter any potential offensive with pinpoint accuracy...

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