Australia may send 41 carrier-based F/A-18 Hornet fighter-bombers to Ukraine

Australia, Ukraine and the United States are discussing the possibility of providing the Ukrainian Air Force with 41 F/A-18 fighters

Hornets, which are in service with the Royal Australian Air Force. If a deal is reached, the planes will still have time to fight a little before being finally retired.

What is known

The talks are reported by The Australian Financialreview. According to the publication's sources, Washington "favorably" refers to the idea of ​​providing the Ukrainian Air Force with F / A-18 Hornet fighter-bombers. Earlier, the United States allowed the allies to transfer American F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft to Ukraine.

Hornet deliveries to Ukraine must be approvedby the American government, because The US owns the intellectual property of the aircraft. The F/A-18s have already been taken out of service after Australia began receiving the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighter (72 on order).

</ img>

Decommissioned F / A-18s are located at the baseRAF near Newcastle. If they are not transferred to Ukraine, then they will either be dumped or sold to RAVN Aerospace and used in training.