Reports are circulating online that Finland supposedly intends to transfer its used F/A-18 Hornet fighter-bombers to Ukraine. It may be talking about 62 units of F/A-18 Hornet in variants C (55 aircraft) and D (7 aircraft), which are planned to be written off and replaced with F-35 Lightning II soon.
At least, these are the headlines that the russian media came up with, citing a publication in the Finnish Ilta Sanomat. However, the publication itself did not mention any final intentions to transfer these F/A-18 Hornet to Ukraine.
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Moreover, at the end of the publication, on the contrary, it is said that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland has no news about the possible transfer of these F/A-18 Hornet. It was also mentioned that these fighters had already been discussed with Ukraine before – it is worth remembering that information about the possible transfer of Finnish F/A-18 Hornet was reported back in 2023.
So, the russian media simply twisted the entire meaning of the original message, and in the end, from the fact that "the transfer was discussed, but there is no news", it turned out that "the transfer will definitely take place".
Defense Expres analyzes whether the transfer of 62 Finnish F/A-18 Hornets is really possible: The retirement of these aircraft is scheduled for 2028-2030 and it should be noted that until they are replaced by the F-35, these aircraft cannot be transferred.
It should be noted that the Finnish Air Force has F/A-18 Hornet aircraft in obsolete modifications C and D. But even in this condition, according to some of their characteristics, they are even more powerful than the F-16 aircraft that are being transferred to Ukraine. In particular, these aircraft are equipped with more powerful on-board radars.
It should be taken into account that if the F/A-18 Hornet is decommissioned in 2028 and the training of Ukrainian crews on them begins immediately, as well as the process of transfer to Ukraine, then the first aircraft will probably begin to arrive around 2030.
In the same year, the first new modern JAS-39E/F Gripen fighters should begin to arrive in Ukraine. Therefore, obtaining another type of aircraft will require Ukraine to spend its already limited resources and finances.
In addition, the adoption of the F/A-18 Hornet will further diversify the air fleet of the Ukrainian Air Force, which already operates a large number of fundamentally different platforms, each of which requires separate crews, unique spare parts, units and weapons.
At the same time, even after solving all the problems and having sufficient resources, the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive an air fleet of up to 62 F/A-18 Hornet fighters, which will not be able to be operated for a long time due to the small residual resource of the airframes. All this is superimposed on the fact that the transfer of these aircraft by Finland to Ukraine will require the consent and appropriate assistance of the United States, which may well refuse this.
So, given all of the above, it seems like a better option for Ukraine to invest its available resources not in acquiring outdated F/A-18 Hornet aircraft, but in purchasing new fighters, such as the same JAS-39 Gripen.
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