Fuselage / wing cracks, now available for F/A 18 too

[Coligny]

Seems the joy of self destructing planes noted on the F15 also expand to the F/A18 Hornet (A to D models).

Lucky, no crash from this cause before the grounding occured.

Sorry ... french naval news, in french...:
http://www.meretmarine.com/article.cfm?id=112645

This is not going to help the salespeople against the SU27-&-variants

[SpikeX]

it's not uncommon. hornets are pretty much the most abused jet ever. they fly almost non stop out at sea and the landings/take offs on a carrier are more jolting than anything most planes will ever encounter. They don't call carrier landings a "controlled crash" for nothing.

[Socratesabroad]

For more on the problem in English...

I can sympathize since, according to the same source

The current US Air Force fleet, whose planes are more than 23 years old on average, is the oldest in USAF history.

Sounds less like a design problem and more like budgeting...
[quote="Defense Industry Daily again"]
Unlike the newer F/A-18 E/F super Hornets, the Hornets under scrutiny have 5,000 –]

[Kanchou]

Back in the day during Korea, WWII, etc, fighters would get replaced practically every couple months... some guys would fly eight or nine different Sabres, apparently. Nowadays a fighter jet costs so much, and is so high tech that they expect them to last three decades with a refurbishing every 15 years or so.

You've got to wonder how long jets will last if we ever have a fight a "real" war again against other fighters...and just what a war when jets cost $100 mil each will cost.